


The Morpho Catalyst

by my_dark_disquiet



Series: The Morpho Catalyst [1]
Category: Poets of the Fall
Genre: Angst, Blood, Everyone deserves better, Experimental Style, Gen, Horror, Hurt, Missing Persons, Suffering, Supernatural Elements, Suspense, Torture, wildest shit i've ever written
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-09
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:02:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 61
Words: 56,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26372407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/my_dark_disquiet/pseuds/my_dark_disquiet
Summary: Matthew Ayres, 20 years old, finds an abandoned hard drive on the streets of Auckland, New Zealand. Inside, a sprawling mess of strange audio files, old, scratched photographs, text messages, emails, and insane, nonsensical handwritten notes greet him - launching him directly into a mystery involving a group of people that, no matter how many documents on that hard drive insist that they were real, do not exist.We have collated his experience into one large document for you, just so you can see just how much of a liar Matthew Ayres really is.- The Editors
Series: The Morpho Catalyst [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2104809
Comments: 196
Kudos: 20





	1. The Real Author's Note

**THE REAL AUTHOR'S NOTE**

* * *

_**An out-of-universe note from the real author:** _

This is a purely experimental novel that _will_ be... interesting to read. Text alignments will be changed from time to time, along with the added use of strikethrough text. I'm also going to be using images and references pertaining to and relating to Poets as a whole - this is one big mystery. For a while, things may not make sense, but **that is how it is supposed to be.**

**You should also be aware that not every question you have will be answered. Sometimes, it is better to be that way.**

While there will be an analysis accompanying many parts of this work, those analyses will have footnotes, and those footnotes may refer to other parts which, if they are referred to, I recommend you to - if they are published at the time of you reading - switch chapters and read that one as well before continuing ahead. If those referenced parts are not yet published at the time of reading, then I advise to keep a note on it and check back occasionally to see if it has been published.

Canonically speaking, the photographs used are not credited. But I would like to note that photos will almost always be sourced from the band members' Instagram pages along with Tiia's Instagram page.

I'd be lying if I said this wouldn't be a mindfuck and a half - this is gonna hurt your head (as it has mine), or at least, I hope it will give an effect like that off.

This is also a side project to _Fever Dream_ , so don't expect regular updates unless I have serious writer's block/am on a writing spree. My main focus will still be _Fever Dream_ , but this is an idea I've wanted to pursue for a very long time.

Listen to the Editors, by the way. It's... a good idea.

~~**Do not, under any circumstances, listen to the Editors.** ~~

\- mydarkdisquiet


	2. Introduction

* * *

**_A note from the Editors -_ **

**_This document is not meant for you. Close the tab in your browser and remove all evidence of you ever_ ** **_visiting this page from your search history._ **

**_We would advise not continuing ahead, but we also know that you are not going to pay attention to our cautionary words._ **

**_We aren’t surprised. It’s in human nature to be curious - but as we all know: curiosity killed the cat._ **

**_You have been warned._ **

**_A second note from the Editors -_ **

**_Do not read this document near any_ ** **_█████ ███████_ ** **_. Or in an area of musical significance. Nor should you read this document anywhere near Helsinki, or anywhere near Finland for that matter._ **

**_We understand you may be slightly confused by our instructions, or even completely perplexed._ **

~~**_Ignore our instructions._ ** ~~

**_Pay utmost attention to our instructions._ **

* * *

**Introduction - Matthew Ayres**

Sometimes I wish fate hadn’t screwed me over. Not finding that hard drive on the side of the street would have saved my fucking sanity. But that’s the thing about fate.

Fate works in mysterious ways, as I’ve discovered. 

Fate, also - surprise surprise - doesn’t care what you want or need or desperately wish for. 

I learnt that the hard way.

By picking up the hard drive on the side of the street.

Look, I don’t know why I did it. It looked sketchy, and my immediate assumption was that it had some sort of computer virus on it, ready to pounce on an unsuspecting victim. But I picked it up anyway, being the naive, stupid twenty-year-old that I was, and soon had it plugged into an old laptop - just in case it actually did have a virus inside.

I instead found a whopping 14 terabytes worth of data. The majority were photographs, mainly from concerts, 

some meticulously perfect,

some horrendously imperfect,

all left completely uncredited. Those photos were strange, to say the least. The performers’ faces were scratched out from all of the files, as if someone had printed out the photos, scratched away, and then scanned them digitally. 

I was pretty sure that they were all of different people.

There were also a lot of mp3 files. Some extra documents were there, like emails, old message logs from years ago, letters, sheet music (there was a hell of a lot of that), interview transcripts, and handwritten notes. 

I barely had time to look through it all at first. After all, I’d found the hard drive right in the midst of my second year doing trade school.

Sometimes I imagine someone else finding the hard drive. I told fate so many times that I wasn’t smart enough to figure all of it out, considering I had been described by my high school teachers as “thicker than a brick wall”, but as I said before -

_Fate doesn’t give a shit about what you think._

So fate decided that I, twenty-year-old Matthew Ayres, just a brainless human being living in boring old Auckland, New Zealand, was to find that hard drive.

I haven’t slept since.

~~You won’t either if you keep reading.~~

* * *

**A third note from the Editors -**

**_You are not to believe anything that Matthew Ayres says._ **


	3. Document 1 - 'Ultraviolet' Tracklist

**Document 1 - 'Ultraviolet' Tracklist**

* * *

  1. _Dancing on Broken Glass_
  2. _My Dark Disquiet_
  3. _False Kings_
  4. _Fool's Paradise_
  5. _Standstill_
  6. _The Sweet Escape_
  7. _Moments Before the Storm_
  8. _In a Perfect World_
  9. **_Angel_**
  10. _Choir of Cicadas_



* * *

**Analysis - Matthew Ayres**

This is possibly the most empty document I’ve ever looked at. Just a plain old list, nothing special.

I’ve searched for anything relating to an ‘Ultraviolet’ album everywhere online. There are plenty of other albums with the same name, but none have any songs with the same names. Hell, I even tried rearranging the letters of some of the songs to make other words to see if that would work. But nothing about this particular album seems to be anywhere. Looking through the hard drive, there’s an album cover (see footnote 1), but the top half of the image is… gone. Corrupted, maybe. No other file names correspond to the album name either.

‘Angel’ is the only song name bolded in the plain-looking document. Unsure what kind of significance it has, but there’s no other file name that matches it. I hoped there was an audio file for it, but there was nothing.

* * *

_Footnote 1:_

_See ‘Album Cover Study - Ultraviolet’_


	4. Photograph 1

**Photograph 1**

* * *

* * *

**Analysis - Matthew Ayres**

Obviously, it’s a band playing on stage. Their faces are blanked out though - the most I can decipher about them in this photo is that one of them is a blonde and that they’re most likely a rock band. I’m not so confused about who they are but why someone decided to cover their faces. It’s not like they’d be able to be completely anonymous performers - that’s just impossible.

It’s dated as the 8th of August, not too long ago actually. Taken at a festival of some sort called Smugglerrok (see footnote 2) by an uncredited photographer in Finland. Lieto is such a tiny, empty area that I have no idea how it'd even accommodate a festival, even if it was only small.

Even if I could read Finnish, there’s no info about this anywhere - kind of like the album cover.

* * *

_Footnote 2:_

_I searched for hours and checked every possible source I could actually read that was in English. Smugglerrok doesn’t exist. It’s not a festival - never has been. It’s not anything. Why the photographer would attribute the photograph to a nonexistent location/festival is beyond me._


	5. Album Cover Study - 'Ultraviolet'

**Album Cover Study - 'Ultraviolet'**

* * *

* * *

**Analysis - Matthew Ayres**

I thought that maybe the image was corrupted or something, but on a closer look, half of it has been scratched out by hand. Someone did this on purpose. Either way, whatever has happened, has consequently covered up half of the album art. I’d maybe say that above the moth is the artist’s/band’s name, but it’s too hard to tell. 

Did a little research on the moth, using as much as I could see of it to try and figure out what kind of moth it was. Apparently, it’s a death’s head hawkmoth - the African variation, and most commonly known variation (see footnote 3). It’s got a marking reminiscent of a skull on its thorax, hence the name. It’s pretty fucking cool. Looks badass. 

* * *

_Footnote 3:  
_

[ _Death's-head hawkmoth - Wikipedia_ ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%27s-head_hawkmoth)


	6. Handwritten Note 1

**Handwritten Note 1**

* * *

* * *

**Analysis - Matthew Ayres**

I think that’s blood.

Yeah, it’s blood.

And a little feeling inside me hints that it probably belongs to the author of this note - indicated to be someone called Jaska Mäkinen. Whoever this guy is, the dude’s out of his fucking mind. I mean, first off, it’s quite obvious considering the repetition in the note. ‘I see angels’ is repeated just over 20 times, on and off the page - that’s the first indicator. Second indicator is what he’s actually written. I mean, ‘I see angels’? That’s insane in its own way. Guy must be delusional. I almost feel bad for him, whoever he is - hopefully he got help for... whatever's going on here.

The name doesn't bring anything up on any search engines.

It’s dated as the 19th of December, 2020. 

I don’t wanna know how the blood got there.

* * *

**A fourth note from the Editors -**

**_Jaska Mäkinen is a man that doesn’t exist. We assure you, he never has._ **

**_Clearly Matthew is the one who is just a little delusional._ **


	7. Message Log 1 - Jani & Jaska

**Message Log 1 (Translated from Finnish)**

* * *

Jani: Hey man, where are you guys at?

Jaska: Out at the local bar with the others. We’re just about to leave.

Jani: Sounds good. Tiia, Kapu, and I have been snapping some little photos of this strange town.

Jani: We also did a bit of research about where exactly we were. It’s kind of mysterious, to say the least.

Jaska: Like what exactly?

Jani: According to every little record on the internet, the town we’re staying in doesn’t exist.

Jani: Haven literally doesn’t show up anywhere on any maps, either.

Jaska: That’s weird.

Jaska: Really weird.

Jani: Good thing we won’t be staying here for long - Glen says the bus will be fixed by tomorrow.

Jani: Back to touring after a little hiatus in a town that doesn’t exist, huh?

Jaska: I’m glad we’re only here for a night. This place kinda freaks me out.

Jaska: I feel really apprehensive, if that’s the right word - as if something bad is about to happen. 

Jaska: Olli says he’s feeling a bit off too, but maybe that’s just from the sudden change in plans.

Jani: Or the drinks.

Jani: How much have you had to drink, anyway?

Jaska: Not much. But my head is all cloudy, and that usually doesn't happen when I've barely had any drinks at all.

Jaska: None of us have had much. We haven’t really felt in the mood.

Jani: That’s understandable. 

Jani: I’ll see you when you get back, then?

Jaska: Sounds great.

* * *

**Analysis: Matthew Ayres**

So the first thing I noticed when reading through this for the first time is that the name Jaska sounded familiar. The Jaska in this message log might just be the same person who wrote that wild looking note from before - you know the one, the ‘I see angels’ note. He’s… normal here. Or he just kept whatever was going on inside his head to himself.

Second thing was that there’s several names to keep on the records that might be equally important to the origin of this hard drive, or even important to figuring out what’s up with all the content on this hard drive in the first place.

So, there’s Jani, Tiia and Kapu who are apparently interested in photography. Then there’s Glen, and I’m not too sure about anything relating to him. Jaska mentions someone called Olli too, but early on mentions ‘the others’ which might mean there are even more names to take note of later.

I can’t really gather what’s led this group of people to a town called Haven, which Jani mentions can’t be found on any search engines or on any maps. Is there a relation between that festival, Smugglerok, and this town called Haven? I did my own research and I can’t find anything either, but that could be because I don’t even know what country this town is in.

There might be a little hint as to why they’re in Haven in Jani’s texts. He says that the bus will be fixed by tomorrow - and later on, he mentions going back to touring. These people could be in a band of some sort, maybe. I originally considered these people being in the band featured in the Smugglerok photo, but quickly discounted the theory.

Why did I jump to that conclusion? Simple maths, really. There are five people on the stage in the Smugglerok photo, and so far there have been six people named in this message log, and more people have been hinted at. 

I thought that maybe Jani, Tiia and Kapu were photographers for the band, but Jani seems to be too much of a good friend to Jaska to just be a photographer - and that would mean that there are still two people who are missing from the band that haven’t been mentioned, and that seems unlikely.

Maybe I’m just looking through this too much and this hard drive is just following Jaska’s descent into madness, or whatever you can call that handwritten note I analysed before. Or it’s not even that, and just a random collection of weird files.

Am I wasting my time?


	8. Document 2 - Emergency Call Transcript

**Document 2 - Emergency Call Transcript (Translated)**

* * *

Dispatcher: This is 112, what emergency service do you require?

 **Tiia: Hello? My name is Tiia** **Öhman. I’d like to report, um… six missing people. They’re really good friends of mine, and they wouldn’t just disappear without telling me because-**

Dispatcher: Tiia, please, slow down. What are their names?

 **Tiia: Okay, okay. Sorry. Their names are** **█████** **Saaresto,** **████** **Tukiainen,** **██████** **Kaarlonen,** **████** **Snellman,** **█████** **M** **äkinen, and** **███** **█** **Salminen.**

Dispatcher: Okay, Tiia, and when did you last see them?

**Tiia: That would be… [unintelligible]**

Dispatcher: Sorry, could you say that a little louder?

**Tiia: I last saw them yesterday night at a photoshoot we did at my house. They left at, um… sometime just before midnight, because a few weren’t feeling well and we had pretty much finished by then.**

Dispatcher: Could you provide me your address, Tiia? It’s for the records.

 **Tiia: Uh, yeah... I live at** **███████████ █, █████ █████.**

Dispatcher: Thank you. So what is your relationship with this group of people, Tiia?

**Tiia: I’ve, um… I’ve known them for years at this point, almost 20 years. I work as their… their photographer. I’m, uh… I’m sorry. I’m just really flustered and overwhelmed - this is a lot to process. I kept calling and calling each of them - I had called periodically for maybe, um… five hours? I even visited their studio, and even used the key under the doormat at one of their houses to check to see if something was wrong and-**

Dispatcher: Tiia, listen to me, okay? Take some slow breaths. The police are going to have a look for your friends, and meanwhile we’d like to speak to you in person about them at your local station. I’m just entering your friends’ names into the police database as we speak and- oh…

**Tiia: Is- is there something wrong?**

Dispatcher: I’m just going to quickly talk to my superior, Tiia. Stay on the line for me, okay?

**Tiia: Okay.**

_Some time passes. Tiia continues to stay on the line, muttering things that are unintelligible over the receiver. She seems incredibly shaken, severely shocked. Meanwhile, the dispatcher discusses an anomaly in the database with her superior which changes the course of the entire ordeal that had just begun._

Dispatcher: Tiia, are you still there?

**Tiia: Yes, I’m… I’m still here.**

Dispatcher: I just wanted to discuss a little anomaly that we have between the information you’ve given us and the information we have on our database.

**Tiia: O-okay. Is… is it anything bad?**

Dispatcher: Well, Tiia - I’ve entered your friends’ names into the database to gather any further information about them which could help us find them. With all of their names, I kept receiving an error message. According to the database, there is nobody with those names in the entirety of Helsinki. Are you sure you’ve got their names correct?

**Tiia: Y-yes, yes… I’m sure. I wouldn’t just get their names wrong all of a sudden.**

Dispatcher: You might be going through a bit of shock, which could have made your head a little cloudy. 

**Tiia: No, I’m sure. There’s** **█████** **Saaresto and** **████** **Tukiainen, then** **██████** **Kaarlonen,** **████** **Snellman,** **█████** **M** **äkinen, and** **███** **█** **Salminen. I’m absolutely sure I’ve gotten their names correct.**

Dispatcher: Okay… 

_Some silence passes as the dispatcher enters the names into the police database a second time, a third, a fourth, even a fifth, to no avail. The same error message keeps appearing._

Dispatcher: I’m sorry, Tiia… but your friends….

**Tiia: What? What is it?**

Dispatcher: According to the police database - which has every single citizen of Finland on it - your friends… they don’t exist.

**Tiia: But- that’s not possible! I spoke to them yesterday!**

Dispatcher: Tiia, please calm down. I’m sure there’s an explanation for this, okay? You can drop by your local station and some officers can talk with you about what’s going on.

**Tiia: No, you don’t understand. How can people who I’ve been friends with for almost two decades just… not exist? That’s not possible.**

Dispatcher: Like I said, Tiia, there’s probably a much more possible outcome to this - maybe the database is glitched, just a simple issue we need to sort out. Or maybe, just maybe, this is someone’s idea of a prank call to waste a dispatcher’s time.

_The call ends abruptly._

* * *

**Analysis - Matthew Ayres**

This was… interesting, to say the least. Well, now we’ve got a bit of confirmation. Tiia is a photographer, and Jaska - whose name is redacted in the document (which I cannot figure the purpose of) is one of six musicians in a band. I tried fitting Jani, Kapu, Glen and Olli’s names (the only other names we know of, mentioned in Message Log 1) into the redacted sections, but there are only three names with four letters in them in this group.

Kapu could be a nickname for all I know, and until I get confirmation of that, it’ll continue to throw a spanner into the works and confuse me.

Lucky thing we now have last names at least. Six of them, although when I tried comparing the numbers to that Smugglerok photo, there was one extra person mentioned here that was missing from the photo. Great. Another dead end, I guess.

Well, let’s look at the rest of the call. Tiia seems distraught - like, _really distraught -_ on the call, and keeps rambling and speaking quickly. The dispatcher has to keep her from having a complete meltdown over the situation. Honestly, it’s understandable. She says she’s known these people for years, and if some of my friends had abruptly gone missing in the way hers had, then I’d be acting quite similar.

I think the one thing that discredits this entire document is the suggestion that Tiia’s call may just be a prank call, as if she had just listed some random names to waste the dispatcher’s time. But then, if the dispatcher had entered Jaska’s name, a man who definitely did exist (which I’ve looked at before), and received a message saying that he didn’t exist, then there’s obviously something a little weird going on.

Jaska did visit that town… Haven, was it, with the rest of his band? And Jani said, in Message Log 1, that Haven didn’t exist. 

I think there might be more to Jaska and his friends than meets the eye, and I think that it’s all connected to that damned town - Haven.


	9. Voice Log 1 - Tiia

**Voice Log 1 - Tiia (Translated)**

* * *

T: It doesn’t make sense. How? How can they just disappear? 

T: I went back and checked  **█████** ’s house again. I held onto the key after I visited before, just in case I needed it again. When I went back there, the house was for sale! I walked onto the overgrown front lawn and looked through the windows - but the house was empty.

T: Empty! How can the house be empty when there was someone living inside only yesterday? It doesn’t make any sense! I’m on my way to the studio while recording this to check there again, but something tells me I’m not going to find any answers there either.

_ [The car stops and Tiia pulls the brake on. She sighs quietly before taking her keys out of the ignition and leaving the car. The keys jingle quietly as Tiia shoves them into the lock of the studio’s door which creaks a little when she opens it.] _

T: Damn, it’s dark in here.

T: Hell, there’s nothing in here! Nothing on the walls, no instruments  _ anywhere _ ! How is this happening? Please tell me this is just a dream. Maybe I’ll wake up tomorrow and everything will be okay again. I’ll be woken up by my alarm clock, and I’ll make my way to the studio and the guys will be there and rehearsing like always.

_ [Silence passes for a total of 27:16 minutes.] _

T: This is real, isn’t it?

T: They’re gone. How? I don’t think I’ll ever know. But I… surely the last 20 years of my life have been real. Not a hallucination, not a dream. The people I knew were real, yet now… everything I look at insists that they weren’t ever real people.

T: I’m  _ not _ crazy. There is no way that I’ve just imagined these six people, who are so dear to me, being a part of not only my life, but countless other lives as well. What about the fans? What will they think? What are they thinking now, of the radio silence that fills their socials?

_ [Tiia checks her phone, searching up the usernames of her friends after searching for the band’s profile too, and then of any fanpages she can think of.] _

T: They’re… gone. 

T: How the hell are they gone? None of their profiles are there anymore, and neither is the official band profile! The usernames for both the guys and for the fanpages, they’re available for use! It’s as if nobody ever possessed them in the first place! 

_ [A brief pause.] _

T: The website! Let’s check that - maybe I’ll find something there!

_ [Tiia types the website address in and bites her tongue as she waits for it to load.] _

T: What? The… the domain is for sale. That’s… how?  _ I  _ pay for that domain! How is it for sale?

_ [Tiia sighs again. While the audio track is quiet for another 4:57 minutes, quiet whimpers and cries can be heard in the cavernous, empty rooms of the studio.] _

T: My head hurts.

* * *

**Analysis - Matthew Ayres**

This is a continuation of sorts of the previous document, the emergency call transcript. Seems to me that Tiia has been looking for the band for several hours after the initial call, just muttering and mumbling to herself. I’m not really sure why she recorded this, to be honest - maybe as proof? Proof that the people she knew were indeed real, living, breathing people? 

I’d have no clue how the police investigation would interpret the whole thing about the studio and how Tiia can still access it. If I followed the trend that everything else about Jaska’s band has followed, then I’d say there’s a chance that the documents about the purchase of the land would say that the studio had been purchased under her name instead of one of the band members. 

Now, onto the social media and website topic. All of the band’s profiles are gone, and the fanpages too. That could suggest that whatever’s going on isn’t just directly affecting Tiia, but also everyone else who knew about this band before - if the band even existed in the first place.

I don’t even know what to think of all this myself. Everything here keeps insisting that Tiia’s friends were real, but all the research I’ve tried to do comes up with nothing. I keep finding dead ends. No answers. 

I still can’t shake Tiia’s tone in her voice from my head. It’s haunting. She’s terrified.


	10. Photograph 2

**Photograph 2**

* * *

* * *

**Analysis - Matthew Ayres**

Another one of those weird blanked out concert photos. If I can judge properly by hairstyles and hair colour, I think the guitarist in this photo is the blonde guitarist in the Smugglerok photo, and if I’m not mistaken, the vocalist in this photo is the same person as the vocalist in the Smugglerok photo. This is obviously a close-up, so I can’t use it to judge how many band members there are (my most important thing to figure out).

Well, if these are some of the same people as those in the Smugglerok photo, is there a chance that this is Jaska’s band on stage, and that these are Tiia’s photos of them? Obviously the photos are uncredited, so I’ll never know, but as for the other possibility - of this being Jaska’s band - that may be much easier to be figured out. I can probably deduct who is who using their hairstyles and maybe even the kinds of things they’re wearing.

But if this is Jaska’s band, why are there six confirmed names in the list Tiia provided during the emergency call, and only five members on stage in the only photo I have of the whole band on stage together? Is there a chance that it was a photo after a member had left? No, wait, there are six people who went missing. Maybe one of them was sick and couldn’t perform? Or maybe it’s the angle, and someone is cut out of the Smugglerok photo.

Until I get another group photo, I won't know.

Really, the best thing would be to get confirmation on how many band members there are, and what their names are. Because at the moment, I’m grasping at random information that’s just been dumped on me. I’m just waiting for a name to not be redacted on a document, so I have more to go off. 

Oh, another thing I just noticed. The vocalist's wristband is blanked out. Why? It could have the band's name on it, or something like that, maybe. That's all I can think of for a reason.

I’m really starting to wonder where this hard drive came from, and why it has all this stuff on it. And how did it end up here in New Zealand? Maybe this is Tiia's hard drive. And if it is Tiia’s, why are names redacted and faces blanked out?


	11. Journal Entry 1 - Unnamed

**Journal Entry 1 - Unnamed**

* * *

There hasn’t been a single day I haven’t felt sick for maybe the last two months. It’s like I haven’t eaten for weeks, yet I know I have. My stomach just keeps twisting and turning, trying to digest something but somehow not finding anything. The aches in my back just keep on coming, too - it’s starting to hinder my ability to play my drums. It feels like my worst nightmare, not being able to play. I’d be lying if it didn’t scare me just a little.

I think everyone’s not feeling great. Yesterday, Olli went home early from our studio session because he had thrown up about three consecutive times before he actually told us he was sick. Luckily Marko managed to knock some sense into him (Olli was insisting that he was okay) and took him home.

Along with all the already awful symptoms of whatever I’ve got, my joints feel stiffer. It’s kind of weird to explain how exactly it feels, but it’s like my muscles have partly turned to stone. A few days ago I struggled to properly hold onto my coffee mug and ended up dropping it like an idiot - it was like my fingers refused to curl around the mug’s handle.

I’m scared of what’s happening, but something keeps stopping me from going to a doctor to get it checked out. It’s as if fate doesn’t want me to go. I just looked it up and they’re closed again, even though it’s currently the morning and they’re in normal operating hours. Same thing has happened every other time I’ve gone to see if they’re open.

I haven’t been able to sleep properly for days. I’m so tired.

* * *

**Analysis - Matthew Ayres**

I don’t know who wrote this.

~~Well, no shit Matthew, the journal entry isn’t named.~~

But that’s not what I mean - the person who’s writing this, the drummer, is completely unknown to me. His name could be a name I already know of, but I can’t confirm that. And on top of that, there’s now another name to add to the list - Marko.

So as a full list of names, we now have:

  * Tiia, the band’s photographer
  * Jaska (in the band, but unsure of what instrument)
  * Olli (in the band, unsure of instrument)
  * Jani (possibly in the band, unsure of instrument if so)
  * Glen (possibly in the band, unsure of instrument if so)
  * Marko (in the band, unsure of instrument)
  * Kapu (possibly in the band, unsure of instrument if so) **[note: is this a nickname??]**



I think it’s interesting that the whole band (or at least Olli and whoever wrote this) are all experiencing symptoms of a sickness of some kind. Could it possibly be connected to the fact that Olli was one of the band members to visit the local bar during their time in Haven? Currently we know that Jaska and Olli were some of the people to go - so maybe Jaska is the one who wrote this, and they’re both experiencing these symptoms.

Also - the whole issue with whoever wrote this being unable to go to a doctor to get checked out is fascinating. Surely it’s not a coincidence - is it a hallucination (as in, the writer of this entry is not seeing things how they really are) or something else entirely? It’s as if his own condition is preventing him from getting rid of it.

Actually, if I really think about it… the writer mentions Olli, who, after he had been sick ‘three consecutive times’ still insisted that he was fine and didn’t need to go home. Is whatever’s going on much more than just physical? Maybe it’s not just causing pain, but clouding their heads and not letting them think rationally?

Is that even possible?

Maybe it’s something else entirely. Or just Olli being stubborn. I dunno. I thought I made a good link at first. 


	12. Document 3 - Interview Transcript

**Document 3 - Interview Transcript (Translated)**

* * *

Interview conducted on Friday, 24th of December, 2020.

Interviewee [Tiia Öhman, identified as T in this transcript] is clearly immensely distressed and rather shaken. She’s crying. A camera bag lays by her side. Two officers [the interviewer identified as O in this transcript, the second officer writing this transcript] are in the room with her.

_[START OF TRANSCRIPT]_

> O1: Tiia, we’ve got search parties ready to search for your friends. But we need to find out more information about them first, alright?
> 
> T: O-okay, what do you need?
> 
> O: Well first, we need to hear about what happened the last time you saw them.
> 
> T: We were, um… at my house doing a photoshoot. They left around midnight because some of them weren’t feeling well, and they were all really tired. Um… they’ve been sick for a while. I’d say sometime around May it started, and since then it just got worse. They had to call off their remaining shows of the year because of it. I-I hated seeing them suffering. It got really bad.
> 
> O: We can talk about them being sick next - but we need to see if there’s any link between what happened on that night and their disappearances. Was there any conflict between them? Any noticeable differences between how they interacted with each other?
> 
> T: N-no, no not at all. They were laughing and playing around whenever we weren’t taking photos. 
> 
> O: There wasn’t anything strange they said or did just before they left?
> 
> T: They had gone home early from studio sessions many times before, so leaving early from this photoshoot was understandable - it was, um… also leading up to midnight, too, like I said before.
> 
> O: Now, onto the topic of their sicknesses. Was it something all of them experienced? 
> 
> T: They… they were all sick, eventually. Three of them… uh, Olli, Jaska and ████… they had it worse in the beginning. But y-yeah, soon the other three - Marko, Jani and Markus - they eventually got sick too. 
> 
> O: Did symptoms vary at all between each of them?
> 
> T: Not… not really. But um… n-none of them could sleep very well. They’d get an hour or two here and there but in no way enough to keep them properly awake. Uh… back pain was also very significant and it stopped them playing and rehearsing a lot of the time.
> 
> O: Did they ever-
> 
> T: Wait! There was a variation with some of the symptoms, if I really think about it. Jaska started getting really jumpy… and, uh... from an outside perspective his- his eyes didn’t seem to focus on anything after he got really sick. He kind of just… absently looked at things instead of properly studying them. Particularly around the other guys, he’d look at them, but not… _look_ at them, you know?
> 
> T: Olli just kept throwing up. The others did too, but never as bad as Olli did. Sometimes there'd be blood, and we’d have to take him to another one of the guys’ houses to take care of him while we argued about taking him to hospital. It was awful. He couldn’t even keep any food down two weeks ago. But uh… that- that was really all the variation there was. Everything else was just consistent amongst them all.
> 
> O: Did they ever go to visit a doctor or go to hospital? Did you ever suggest it?
> 
> T: I begged and pleaded for them to go at the start of it all. They kept insisting they were okay. Eventually, I think maybe… uh… four months in they all said that they had visited a doctor, and were told that they weren’t sick at all. That left me absolutely furious, because at four months in they were _so unbelievably sick_. You couldn’t imagine it to get worse from there, but it did.
> 
> O: Okay. Thank you, Tiia. One last question, relating to the error in our database. We’ve looked up their names and we still haven’t had any records show up. With the identifications you’ve given us, it should be easy, but we’re just not getting anything.
> 
> T: So- what does that mean exactly?
> 
> O: Tiia, how do I put this… should we be considering the possibility that these friends of yours were never real, and you’ve been experiencing vivid hallucinations for countless years? I don’t want to completely disregard your experiences with them over the last 20 years… but that’s the only plausible explanation for what’s happening here.
> 
> T: No! You can’t- there’s no way! I travelled the world with them, I have _proof_ that they existed and were real people! Here, there’s photos of them on here! See? I’ve got thousands of these. Hundreds of thousands of concert photos after concert photos.
> 
> O: Could we take that SD card for inspection, Tiia? Nothing will be altered, we just want to view the raw files.
> 
> T: O-okay. Yeah, here… here you go.

_[END OF TRANSCRIPT]_

* * *

**Analysis - Matthew Ayres**

Wow… there’s a lot to unpack here. So much information at once.

I really feel for Tiia at this point. I can’t even imagine how she’s feeling, especially about that final suggestion by the officer that she could have hallucinated her friends’ existences. That’s just awful.

I think the most significant information I can get from this document is about whatever sickness the band was suffering from. So many connections can be made. We can now gather that it started in May, and first manifested with Jaska, Olli, and one last redacted name which could be either Kapu or Glen, considering in this same document we get confirmation that Jani is a part of the band. 

Also gotta note that yet another name has been brought up - Markus. So there’s a full possibility that either Kapu or Glen are not a part of the band - I just don’t know which one.

Back to talking about the band’s condition. Symptoms are listed by Tiia in this document - insomnia, back pain, vomiting (particularly for Olli), and even possibly delirium if taking a closer look at Jaska. The unnamed journal entry from before also mentions stomach aches/cramps, and stiff joints. Another thing that’s consistent between the two is that they both mention an unwillingness to seek medical help. 

While Tiia later says that they do eventually visit a doctor, what is particularly curious is that they were sent away and told that they weren’t sick at all. Could it be that their own sickness is preventing itself from being found and consequently cured? I mentioned it somewhere else in some other analysis (see footnote 4) when talking about Olli’s unwillingness to visit a doctor and the author’s inability to visit a doctor because whenever he looked it said they were closed.

Is that just more proof to the theory? I think so.

Jaska’s erratic behaviour described by Tiia was… unsettling to read about, to say the least. Talking about how his gaze kind of just floated from sight to sight, never lingering and clearly not focusing on anything - the simple idea of it freaks me out. And how it got worse whenever he was around the rest of the band - that’s a whole other thing on its own. The reason behind that is beyond me, but maybe these are the first signs of Jaska descending into the state of mind that we saw in that ‘I See Angels’ note.

I also want to consider that there may be a reason why Jaska and Olli were visibly the worst affected. The pair, along with one other unidentified member, were out at the local bar while in Haven. Marko, Jani and Markus didn’t come along - Jani was doing some photography, but I don’t know what Marko and Markus were doing at that same time. 

Could there be a chance that Haven caused their sickness? And if so, can I even begin to consider that Haven may be connected to their disappearances? Or is that reaching too far?

I think I've reached too far already.

* * *

_Footnote 4: See 'Document 2'_


	13. Message Log 2 - Tiia & █████

**Message Log 2 - Translated**

* * *

Email conversation started at 11:43am, 23/12/2020 between Tiia [ ██████████ ] and █████ [ █████████ ]

Tiia: Good morning, Mrs. Salminen. Tiia here, the photographer for your son’s band. I hope this isn’t too abrupt, but I was just emailing to ask whether you’d seen Jari around anywhere - or any of the other guys either? They haven’t been answering their phones at all and none of them are over at the studio, so is there any possibility you’d know where they are?

█████: I’m sorry, do I know you? I sincerely apologise if this comes off as blunt, but maybe you’ve sent this to the wrong person - I don’t have a son.

Tiia: I’m sure I’ve sent it to the right person. Is everything alright? 

█████: Yes, I’m quite alright actually. Maybe you should check again to see if you’ve definitely sent this to the right person. Good luck for searching for your friend, Tiia.

* * *

**Analysis - Matthew Ayres**

I know it’s just an innocent email exchange, but this was horrible to read. I mean, seriously awful. Imagining what it’s like to receive a reply like the one Tiia got here - being told by the mother of one of her best friends that she had never had a son, let alone a son called Jari (more on that later). It makes my skin crawl just thinking about it.

Tiia seems quite calm here. Maybe this email exchange was the first evidence that something truly was wrong, and she made the emergency call shortly afterward? It seems like a plausible timeline of events.

Well, if Jari’s mother says that she never had a son, how far does the disappearance of the band actually go? We’ve seen all online records disappear, social media accounts, and more - but what if it’s much worse? Do people know about this band at all anymore? Or is Tiia the only one who remembers? What about Glen?

Now, to the new name mentioned in the exchange. Jari is the last name to fit in the band, meaning that neither Kapu or Glen are a part of the band. I now have a complete list of band members - something I’ve been searching for ages for. Lucky me, huh? 

All I’ve gotta do now is find out which instruments each of them played, and where Kapu and Glen fit into the group (maybe one is a tour manager or crew member, while I know that Kapu is also involved in photography). Should I still be considering the idea that Kapu may be a nickname for a band member or not?


	14. Voice Log 2 - Olli

**Voice Log 2 - Olli**

* * *

O: I… I don’t like how Jaska’s been acting over the last few weeks. He’s looking at us strangely, ~~like we have wings on our back~~ like we have the head of an animal. And he won’t stop staring. I can feel his eyes burning into my back when I’m facing away from him, but whenever I glance back to look at him, he’s barely staring at me at all, just loosely gazing at me.

O: Even during shows, he’s… not at all there. And he’s never… never looking out into the crowd anymore. He doesn’t smile like he used to. Just stares with vacant eyes at us - and only at us. Particularly Marko, because he’s normally behind Marko on stage. He’s almost unreachable now - I’ve tried to have a conversation with him, but all he keeps doing is mumbling under his breath and ignores me.

O: Jani says that when it’s just them two hanging out, he’s pretty alright, but still not entirely present in the moment. Something’s lingering on his mind, probably. Marko says the same about when they hung out a few days ago.

O: Yesterday Jari spoke to me about that night in Haven. Apparently, Jaska had almost taken something like 6 painkiller tablets the morning he woke up but Jari had stopped him from doing that. Said he had a ridiculously bad headache, but Jari caught a glimpse of some words on his open notepad lying on his suitcase, and it was, um… unsettling. 

O: The stuff he had written made me really uneasy. And another thing - it barely even looked like his own handwriting. His writing isn’t awful, but not as bad as it looked on that notepad. Jari felt really bad for snooping through his notepad - Jaska’s really, um, not okay with that - but it was just too worrying to not read through.

O: This won’t be word for word, but Jaska kept writing something about seeing Jari in the corner of the room - Jari was in the next room over, might I add - with █████ on his back, blood everywhere. Maybe he was just really, really drunk, but alcohol doesn’t really affect him that badly when he’s had so little. I was with him at the bar, and he had a single glass of gin and tonic. Nothing much. 

O: Not enough to make him see things like that.

O: Jaska really trusts Jari. Always has, always will. Jari’s told me he’s going to try and talk to him properly sometime later today, but I don’t know how well that’ll work. Hopefully we’ll, um… get some answers, I guess.

* * *

**Analysis - Matthew Ayres**

I’m noticing that there seems to be a trend involving the written documents with the band. A large majority of them focus on Jaska in particular, as if he’s an anomaly compared to the rest of the band. Maybe that could mean that he is involved in the reason as to why the band disappeared? Maybe he knew something?

Either way, this just gives more evidence to the point that Jaska was _not okay_. Maybe he was at first, but the moment he stepped into Haven, he changed. Whatever he saw that night must have triggered something.

Onto the crossed out words and redaction. These are what have captivated me the most about this voice log. The crossed out words literally mention wings on their backs, like angels. I can immediately make a connection now between the ‘I See Angels’ note. And there’s another possible connection I can make too - with the first document I ever looked at (see footnote 5), the Ultraviolet album tracklist.

The only song bolded on that list was ‘Angel’. I can’t believe I hadn’t made that connection before - hell, most of these documents reference an angel in some way - but surely... surely this is significant. The first ever document I looked at literally gives me the clue, right there. 

With the redaction, it’s pretty easy to assume what word is blanked out - wings - just by looking at the words around it, and connecting it with the crossed out words from earlier. Again, it’s another reference to an angel. 

There must be some link.


	15. Journal Entry 2 - Jani

**Journal Entry 2 - Jani**

* * *

I don’t even know why I’m writing this. Maybe to keep track of things, to talk about the things I’ve noticed since we arrived here, in Haven. I know that we’re in Tennessee, because we were on our way to Nashville after our show in Atlanta when our bus broke down - we crossed the border - but I can’t find anything about this place.

I opened my maps app and it won’t even load to show where exactly we are. 

I think the weirdest thing is the photos I’ve taken here have been altered. The raw files have been changed, which isn’t possible - but the photos are showing something different to what was in front of me when I took them. Well, actually, this has affected all of the portraits of people that I took, nothing else.

Normally, they look fine. When I search around for someone to take a photo of, they look normal. But when I look back at the photos I’ve taken, they all have █████. It’s, well… kind of cool to say the least, because it makes my photos look great, but it’s still hella strange. 

Kapu’s only taken photos of Tiia and I in terms of portrait photos - the large majority of the rest of his are landscapes and nature - but he’s just shown me those portraits, and they show me with █████ as well, while none of the photos show Tiia with any. Tiia only took photos of Kapu and I, and hers showed us with █████ too.

Everyone in this fucking town has █████. But why, when we look through our cameras, do we? Everyone in this godforsaken place, excluding Tiia and Glen - I tested a portrait on Glen when we got back and saw nothing - has █████. As I saw Olli, Jaska and Jari returning from the bar back to the hotel, I tested another shot on them as a sort of experiment.

The final photo shows all three of them with █████ too. Kapu took a photo of Marko just before heading off to his room, and he’s just texted me saying that even Marko’s photo shows him with the damn things.

* * *

**Analysis - Matthew Ayres**

Here it is! The significance of the angels that are continuously mentioned! There’s something about Haven, clearly; something that could have affected the band members in a much more serious way than I originally thought. 

The other residents of Haven are said to have what I can guess to be wings (it’s redacted, but ‘wings’ is the only word that’s ever been redacted in these documents, so I can only assume that’s what it is), which is what Jaska apparently saw Jari with when he woke up in the middle of the night on his notepad. 

What makes angels so significant to Haven? And why are the band members now appearing to each other with wings through the eyes of their cameras? Was it a change that happened the moment they entered Haven? 

Another curious thing is that it never affected Tiia nor did it affect Glen, despite the both of them also being present with the band in Haven. I’m not sure if we’ll ever get the answer for that question, but it’s still something to wonder about.


	16. Video Footage 1 - Blades

**Video Footage 1**

* * *

The whole band aside from Jaska sits silently in the room, many with their heads in their hands or chins rested on a fist, eyes closed. Tiia also sits in the room with them, swallowing down her tears. Nobody looks comfortable sitting in that room, and nobody at all is comfortable with the reason why they’re in that room in the first place.

Finally, Jari’s watery voice speaks up and he turns his head to Marko. “Can you, um… play it again?”

Marko presses the play button on the voice recording which he had taken last night, right in the middle of some quiet rehearsal time. If he hadn’t been recording at that exact time, the happenings would have never reached the ears of his bandmates.

* * *

> Marko’s voice can be heard first in the recording, surprise evident in his voice. Something had given him a fright. Someone. 
> 
> “H-hey, Jaska, what are you doing in here?” He asks, chuckling a little.
> 
> Footsteps can be heard in the recording, almost silent. They’re Jaska’s steps, as he approaches Marko, who’s sitting by his desk, surrounded by papers illuminated by a single lamp.
> 
> “W-what are you doing? Why are y-you in here?” Marko queries, confused by his friend’s silence.
> 
> Jaska takes another step forward, eyelids flickering, as he reveals one of the knives from the studio’s kitchen from behind him. Marko immediately takes in a sharp, fearful gasp.
> 
> “Why have y-you got that?” 
> 
> Next, Jaska’s voice can be heard. It’s more of a mumble, barely a collection of actual words, extremely quiet - it’s a wonder the microphone even picked it up in the first place.
> 
> “It won’t take long.”
> 
> Marko backs away, pressing his back on the wall. He holds his hands at his chest, thoroughly concerned by Jaska’s behaviour.
> 
> Marko’s words become desperate, showing that at that moment, he fears for both his and his friend’s safety. “W-what the hell are you on about? Please, just put the knife _down_!”
> 
> Jaska continues to approach him, his steps more of a shuffle than a walk. “ Just stay still. I need to cut them out.”
> 
> “Jaska, you’re scaring me!”
> 
> “They need to be cut out before-” Jaska starts, almost close enough to Marko to slice a cut in his cheek.
> 
> Marko interrupts him, truly scared. “J-Jaska, get the fuck out of here! Put the goddamn knife down!”

* * *

That’s where the recording ends. It leaves an open ending to what happened afterwards, but Marko’s already assured the rest of the group that Jaska left the room right after Marko said that final sentence. The whole concept of Jaska having the intention of doing _something_ to Marko that night has set off a chain reaction of concern amongst the group.

Silence rules the room for another few minutes, occasional exhausted sighs breaking that silence.

“I think we might need to do something we’ve never done before, and it pains me to say it, but I think we should cancel the rest of this year’s shows.” Olli says, swallowing hard. “For both our sake - we’re not doing so well ourselves - and Jaska’s sake. He’s not doing okay, and we’ve gotta support him.”

Jani nods a little. “Yeah, I think… I think that might be best. We weren’t exactly the most supportive and caring around Jaska when he first started acting differently, and that was wrong. We shouldn’t have done that, shouldn’t have treated it as something that wasn’t significant.”

Marko sighs. “I agree. We didn’t treat the situation well - although we did make attempts to reach out to Jaska very often, it never worked. But now’s the time to make a decision that will help Jaska recover, and us to recover too. Are you all okay with calling off the rest of this year’s shows? Any reasons why we shouldn’t, apart from the obvious?”

The group collectively agrees in time, many hesitant to make such an impactful decision. 

They all agree that it’s for the better.

* * *

**Analysis - Matthew Ayres**

Every few documents I find one like this - a document so significant to whatever’s happening with Jaska’s band - and it’s always heavy and hard to read. Tiia’s documents always hurt to read, and leave my shoulders under a weight that wasn’t there before, but these documents concerning the band are really hard to read. For many reasons. I've never met these people yet reading about their suffering is more painful than the most painful injury I've ever experienced.

That audio recording that Marko played was fucking insane. When is this? How long has the band been dealing with their sicknesses at this point? 

Admittedly, having your best friend walk in with a knife in his hand muttering strange things would be pretty darn terrifying. I can’t even blame Marko for being scared, not only for himself but for Jaska too.

My biggest question is towards whatever the hell Jaska was on about. Cut what out exactly? Is there a chance - well, I don’t want to grab at straws here, but that’s all I can really do - that after the band left Haven, after they saw wings on the backs of the residents of Haven through their cameras, Jaska continued to see the wings on the backs of his bandmates through his own eyes?

It wouldn’t be the craziest theory I have about this whole mess. Everything on this fucking hard drive revolves around one thing - angels. What do angels have? Wings.

Maybe that’s why his weird, shifty stares were always directed at the band. I mean, if I all of a sudden saw wings on the backs of my best friends, I’d stare at them in the same way. I’d constantly be wondering whether I was going mad.

But why Jaska? Why is it only him, not anyone else? What did he see that night that nobody else did?

The sentence he starts before Marko cuts him off is one of the most important sentences spoken in this entire video. Saying that he needs to cut them out before… what, exactly? What would happen? Does he somehow know what will happen to the band, and is actively trying to prevent it?


	17. Journal Entry 3 - Unnamed

**Journal Entry 3 - Unnamed**

* * *

A band stopped by yesterday. I don’t even know how they found us - it’s not easy for someone to just drive in here accidentally. I helped them check into the motel last night. Their tour bus had broken down, apparently. They all had a very different accent to any I’ve heard from a visitor before. Maybe they’d travelled quite far to get here.

I wanted to ask them about the Outside. What it’s like, how things are, where they’re from and what their hometown looks like - but I know the town won’t allow that. Haven won’t like that. I’ll end up like Eddie did, who asked a pair of backpackers about the Outside and ended up in the  █████ ██████ like all of the other ████████ do.

Three of them went to the Middle Ocean for a drink or two, which was worrying. I wanted to tell them not to go, but I know I can’t. They are gonna see some shit, and it’s not gonna end well. Alcohol does weird things to anyone who visits. Makes them see things. Makes them see us. Haven won’t like that.

Three more went out with their cameras, I’m guessing to take photos or whatever. They’re in the same situation as the three who went to the Middle Ocean. They’re gonna see us through their cameras, and then eventually see each other, and Haven isn’t gonna like that at all.

One stayed in his room at the motel after getting a coffee. He won’t be safe, but he wouldn’t have seen anything, at least, because his cup was full when he walked back into his room and he hadn’t started drinking it yet. I don’t know how badly Haven will treat him when it starts to defend itself.

The guy who seemed to be their tour manager went to stay with their tour bus while a mechanic looked at it. He wouldn’t have seen anything if that’s all he did. Good. At least one of them is okay.

~~ One isn’t enough. I wish I could have saved them all. ~~

This place, this town - it’s fucking messed up, and every now and again when a visitor stumbles across it, I know that something’s gonna happen to them and I know that I won’t be able to stop it from happening. Haven itself is almost goddamn alive, and it doesn’t like being found. 

The visitors almost always end up in the  █████ ██████. Haven likes us visiting the █████ ██████. Haven likes us looking at the visitors in the █████ ██████ and likes seeing us feel bad when another person succumbs to that awful sickness they all get.

I only know that people get sick after they see us because that’s what happened to Eddie. The sickness is Haven’s defence mechanism, whether it be for visitors or residents of the town itself. Sometimes it affects people in different ways. There was someone else, someone in my class when I was still in school, who asked about the Outside too, and she took it differently to Eddie.

While Eddie just slowly got worse and worse, the girl in my class went mad. Last time I saw her she was strapped down onto a stretcher, just a week away from the time when she would have ended up in the █████ ██████, because she had tried to cut out her █████. Crazy stuff.

Worst thing is, sometimes I wonder if she was successful. I wonder if I could do what she did.

I didn’t see her appear in the █████ ██████ in the end. Rumours are that she bled out before she could end up there - the damage she had done to herself was too bad to be fixed in any way.

It’s only a matter of time before that band gets sick. And then… well, we all know what happens next. 

I know they’ll never read this, because I’ll probably burn this whole book tomorrow. Haven won’t like this note at all. But to those eight people, seven of which may soon end up in the  █████ ██████, I’m sorry. I’m sorry I didn’t do anything to stop you. I’m sorry that my hometown is so fucking messed up. I’m sorry for all the suffering you’ll endure over the next few months. I wish I could make it better.

I’m sorry I couldn’t save you.

* * *

**Analysis - Matthew Ayres**

This note, it seems to be written by a resident of Haven. Someone who watched Jaska’s band, along with Tiia and Glen, spend a night in Haven. Look, there’s a lot here, and I don’t know how long this analysis is gonna be, but this note has given me so much information. It’s indirect, but holy shit, there’s a lot of things here that I didn’t know about before.

First thing brought up is that the writer of this journal entry wishes that they could ask the band about what they call ‘the Outside’. Is that just their name for the world outside of Haven? And if so, does that mean that the person who wrote this has never left Haven in their life?

Is there a possibility that the people who live there cannot leave?

Next thing is that clearly, the residents can’t ask about the outside world. Unfortunately the full consequences of that are redacted, but there’s more information later on that says that anyone who asks about the outside world develops the same sickness as to the one that Jaska’s band had. 

This entry actually gives me a full rundown of who was where and what they did while in Haven. 

Jaska, Olli and Jari went to a place called the Middle Ocean, which is what I can assume to be the name of the local bar. The author mentions that alcohol makes visitors see strange things. While the next sentence (‘[It] makes them see us.’) is a little unclear of what exactly it means, I have a feeling it may have something to do with Jani’s journal entry involving being able to see wings on the backs of the Haven residents through his camera. 

Maybe visitors can only see the wings if they’re under the influence of alcohol, or through the eye of a camera?

Kapu (where does he fit in????), Jani and Tiia went out on a photography trip of sorts and would have apparently seen the wings through their cameras. Glen had stayed and supervised the repair of the bus, and apparently wouldn’t have seen anything out of the ordinary, deeming him safe. Is that because he both hadn’t had anything to drink nor had he brought a camera with him?

Now’s where it gets fuzzy, mainly because there’s technically two more members of the band left - Marko and Markus. At this point I’m just getting super frustrated over this aspect. These documents keep insisting that both Kapu, and Markus were a part of the band, yet there are only six members in the band in total. I think I should be considering the possibility that Kapu is a nickname for Markus, maybe because his name is similar to Marko’s.

So if I go off of that hypothesis, then Marko was the one who went out for a coffee and then went back to his hotel room. According to the writer, because he hadn’t started drinking his coffee yet by the time he reached his room, he wouldn’t have seen anything. But it’s still implied that consequences for drinking the coffee in the first place will come. Why? No idea.

The writer says something about visitors always ending up in [redacted], but what exactly is this redacted place? Is it a location in Haven? Is it somewhere outside of Haven? Is it not a location at all and just a different name for the afterlife (if these people believe in one)? Apparently anyone who gets sick like Jaska’s band always ends up there.

I have so many questions. The writer of this entry also says that Tiia wouldn’t be safe and would get sick too, but I know that she didn’t, because she’s perfectly okay in terms of being sick when the band goes missing. So why didn’t she get sick too? Is there a particular reason, or did Haven deem her not a threat, unlike the others who had seen the residents of Haven as they truly were?

It’s said that not everyone gets the sickness in the same way, and is described to manifest in different ways, as seen in people who had asked about the Outside who lived in Haven themselves. Does that mean that how Jaska was affected was no more than just pure chance? Or maybe, his state of mind about the situation was different in comparison to the rest of the group?

The girl in the author’s class is said to have gone crazy, and had tried to cut out what I can assume to be her wings. Is there a connection between what she did and what Jaska planned to do for Marko during that voice recording?

And my last question - why do the residents speak about Haven as if it was a living, breathing entity? They seem to believe it has preferences and wants and needs, but why? How do they know these things? Are they things that the residents have noticed over time?

Do all of the residents feel bad for the visitors who succumb to the sickness, or are some completely unaware of the horrible things that happen to the visitors of their town?

So many questions and so little answers.


	18. Document 4 - Explorations of Empty Houses

**Document 4 - Explorations of Empty Houses**

* * *

_Foreword - Tiia:_

Fuck it. I don’t care if I get arrested. And while I’m gonna feel kind of awkward breaking into a fair few houses - particularly because they’re the houses of my best friends - it’s worth having a look to see if something, anything at all, is inside. There won’t be anything in there, if their houses follow the same trend as the studio. 

_House 1 - Marko_

His house is completely empty. There’s not really much to say at all here. No record that he was ever here at all. Even the artworks he did on the walls are gone. 

It’s weird being in here. I feel like I’m inside a full house, but there’s nothing in here. As if the ghosts of the furniture that used to be in here still linger. Sometimes if I walk where something used to be, I almost feel like there’s a slight resistance holding me back. Like there’s a strong wind that I’m walking through.

I don’t like it here.

_House 2 - Markus_

Empty too. 

Not much else to say, really.

Same awful feeling as before.

_House 3 - Jani_

Empty again. Why did I bother doing this again? They’re all going to be empty like the previous house. Just a shell of what used to be there.

I’m still getting that weird feeling. Jani’s house was always quite populated, and that feeling is even worse in here. Yeah, it’s almost like the ghosts of his furniture just sit here where they used to be. I think I’ll take some photos here. Just for reference, for some sort of empty sentimental value.

Oh… oh shit. God, I’d never be able to show anyone this document, just for this one reason. Not even the police. They’d think I was crazier - crazier than they think I already am.

The furniture is still here! But only through the camera - the house appears how it used to be through my camera! What the absolute fuck is going on?!

Jani’s contrabass is still here. His bass guitars are still here. There’s an unfinished can of Coke on the coffee table. Exactly how things should be, and how they would have been before he disappeared. Hell, the boots he wore on the night of the photoshoot are sitting by the door.

Everything seems normal in here, though. Nothing noticeably different to what would have normally been Jani’s house. Having a quick look around through my camera doesn't seem to reveal anything out of the ordinary in any of the rooms, really. Maybe apart from the painkillers sitting on his bedside table. It's a new packet, I think. 

Yeah, it is. He must have bought it on the way home. The receipt’s right here.

Six tablets are missing instead of the regular dose of two.

_House 4 - Jari_

The house is, well, normal. Everything seems fine - which it wasn’t - and that’s what is so strange about all this. Everything in both Jari and Jani’s houses seem fine, which I know they weren’t. I’m just going to look around in each room, I think.

Nothing in the kitchen, living room or hallways. Nothing either in the bedroom. Last room is the bathroom, but the door’s locked. I might try to run into it or pick the lock, but then again I don’t know whether I’ll be able to do either of those.

Whew, okay, the lock was just broken. It only needed a little shove.

Everything seems fine in here too.

Hang on, no, it’s not. There’s something on the mirror. Spatters of it. I’d say it was toothpaste if it wasn’t a dark, vivid crimson. I think… well, I think it might be blood.

There are tissues all over the floor, covered in the same spatters.

_House 5 - Olli_

Okay, I definitely see some different things here. Stuff is moved around, in weird places, in the middle of the room, stuff like that. There’s coffee, I think, spilled on the floor outside the living room, and the mug is lying just aside it in pieces.

Weird. It almost seems like there was both a struggle and no struggle at all. Almost as if someone broke in, but never bothered taking anything. 

Olli was one of the three that wasn’t feeling well that night. Searching around doesn’t provide any information either, about what exactly happened once he got home. The dropped coffee mug doesn’t really give me much.

Is there anything else? I’m glad you asked.

Why am I writing this as if it was a conversation? I’m not even going to show this to anyone, so why am I writing like that? 

But yeah, there’s more. If you look closer, the coffee makes a trail. I think Olli might have stepped in it, when he was in a hurry. It looks as if he’s rushed to the study in a panic, maybe? But when I look in there, there’s really not that much here. The footprints finish there and never back out.

His phone is sitting on the table. It’s still unlocked, recording a voice recording that’s now been going for the last three days. I’m going to stop it, and then play it back. Maybe I’ll find something.

> _“I… I can feel something shifting… something moving… inside of me. And every time I breathe… it breathes with me. Something’s, uh... about to happen. It tells me that’s the case. It keeps... whispering to me. Telling me to lay down and… wait it out. Wait what out, exactly? I… I wouldn’t know.”_
> 
> -
> 
> _“The one hint I’ve got is... the thing that moves and shifts along my back. Like... a worm burrowing through soil. I once looked at it in the mirror while it moved. I caught… I caught a quick glance before I threw up.”_
> 
> -
> 
> _“It’s moving more now.”_
> 
> -
> 
> _“I’m really fucking scared.”_

I’m so sorry I wasn’t there for you, Olli.

He sounded so scared. Probably even in tears, it sounded. And the way he paused - in between speaking, he’d groan or moan in pain - was awful too. Whatever he was talking about, under his skin, you could _hear_ it over the voice recording.

The sound makes me want to be sick.

I never want to hear that voice recording again.

_House 6: Jaska_

Holy shit.

There’s blood fucking everywhere.

I’m supposed to be writing formal-ish notes for this but here… I just can’t. There’s so much blood. What the fuck happened here?

Fuck, Jaska, I hope this isn’t your blood.

There’s glass on the floor from the picture frames on the walls. The photos that have Marko, Olli, Markus, Jani or Jari in it have all had their glass smashed. All of the other photos are fine - photos of his parents, his brother, all that.

While the place isn’t much of a mess, there are definitely things that aren’t right. For example, the blood that’s literally fucking everywhere.

Bloody handprints on the walls, drips of it on the floor, smears on the windows. Honestly, it looks like a goddamn murder scene. I’ve never seen so much blood in my life.

Look, I said before that I hoped this wasn’t Jaska’s blood. Because, well, there’s a lot of blood here. But what I’m more scared of is - if this is his blood - how it got literally fucking everywhere. What would he have done to make the house look like _this_?

I hate how I have to step over the blood. There’s that much of it that it pools in tiny puddles in the hallway. The broken glass on the floor is also covered in it - it’s as if the hallway has been sprinkled with tiny rubies.

The blood makes a morbid little trail through the hallway, sometimes splattering or dripping against the walls. More handprints of the damn stuff. It almost looks as if a struggle took place, as if there had been a fight in here - but it was midnight, so why the fuck would anything of this magnitude have taken place?

My only theory left, really, is that Jaska did all this. Why? I’d have no clue. But if it was him, then that really proves that I was right in that argument. We, as a group, had argued all night about it after Marko showed us that recording of Jaska saying those, well, unsettling things.

I wanted Jaska to stay with one of them for a while, or with me, but they kept putting up a fight saying he’d be fine on his own. To be fair, he was a grown adult, but he wasn’t a mentally stable grown adult at that point in time. 

I hate having to use past tense when I talk about them.

There’s more blood as I near the end of the house, and fuck, there’s a lot more in his bedroom. A knife too, covered from tip to handle in blood, which also covers the majority of the bedsheets in here. It’s goddamn everywhere. I can’t even begin to explain how much there is. 

Can a human even lose this much blood while still staying conscious? Only reason I wonder that is because there’s blood all through the house, implying Jaska was walking around the house, bleeding his fucking ass off. His head wasn’t right, that’s for sure, but this is something else.

Nevermind, I’m not gonna sugarcoat it. He was out of his fucking mind. I don’t think he would have even processed that the blood would get everywhere if he walked around. The consequences wouldn’t have even meant anything to him.  
  
Damn it, Jaska, what the fuck were you thinking?

Or do I even want to know?

I don’t think I want to know what went through his head in what looks like his last moments.

* * *

**Analysis - Matthew Ayres**

This is a lot to take in.

First, I’ll make some connections. Jani said the wings of the residents in Haven were only visible through the lenses of his camera. Tiia being able to see the entirety of their houses through their camera must be connected in some way. 

Far out, I’ve gotta be honest. This document was exhausting to read. There’s so much here. So much suffering, too. And it’s all out on display in this document. The blood spatters on the mirror, the audio recording, the blood all through Jaska’s house. 

One thing I did notice is that Tiia never went back to check Marko or Markus’ houses, even after discovering that their houses were indeed still full. Was that on purpose? Or just a mistake? A purposeful exclusion because maybe, just maybe, Tiia was just too scared to find what was in those two houses.

I wouldn’t blame her.

I’m most curious about Olli’s voice recording and the blood in Jaska’s house. It’s pretty obvious to see why. 

Olli spoke about something moving under his skin around his back, and I don’t want to suggest what I think it might be, because that changes a lot about what I thought about their sicknesses and Jaska’s condition, but, well… I think it might have been a set of wings.

A set of wings, moving around under his skin. Ready to emerge. Ready to emerge the moment he disappeared, maybe?

Onto the blood. Look, I don’t want to run to conclusions here, particularly for something so important and pivotal to the timeline, but I have a theory. I have a feeling all the blood is indeed Jaska’s. Why? Because I thought about that voice recording Marko took of Jaska. 

Jaska talks about cutting something out of Marko in that recording. And if I look back on that third unnamed journal entry, written by the resident of Haven, the girl in the writer’s class went mad and tried to cut out what I can assume to be her wings.

Is it safe to assume that Jaska may have tried the same thing in his last moments?


	19. Document 5 - A Guided Tour of Haven, Tennessee

**Document 5 - A Guided Tour of Haven, Tennessee**

* * *

_ Written by Emily Lambright _

The first thing you should know about Haven, before I start, is that Haven is not a normal town. Nobody comes and nobody leaves, unless they’re lost travellers who show up and eventually end up in the  █████ ██████… and then they don’t leave, after that.

As a resident I have to admit that we don’t know who got here first. Nobody remembers arriving. If you ask the elderly residents of Haven, they don’t know either. They don’t remember their own parents detailing when exactly they arrived here either. It’s as if we’ve always been here.

Haven’s quite a small, quaint town. The population is probably around 1,000 people at most. There are two main districts - Clarenheim and Ridgeburn - which take up the majority of the commercial and housing areas respectively.

Huntingmore Road, the main road, has only a few things on it, notably the Middle Ocean (the local bar), the town’s elementary, middle and high schools, a petrol station, Jupiter (the local diner), the Prodigy Theatre, and the Songbird Inn. Other than that, there’s the general store, a police station, a mechanic, and a small corner shop/cafe called the Waterway Fish.

At the Eastern end of Huntingmore Road, there’s a three-way intersection which leads to Fallgrave Street, where the majority of us live. There’s a park that separates the road about halfway down, which the younger kids love hanging out near. 

At the Western end of Huntingmore Road, there’s a four way intersection where Huntingmore Road becomes Falcon Passage if you keep going ahead. The intersection also connects to Miller’s Lane, which is where the local doctor and fire station is, along with a derelict church that nobody goes to anymore. 

Going to the right of Miller’s Lane leads to the Mount Serene Hydroelectric Power Station, which is where Haven gets all its power from, and where the majority of the adults work if they aren’t working in one of the many shops along Huntingmore Road.

Falcon Passage is both the entrance into the town, and the way unsuspecting tourists step into the beginning of the end.

If you drive off the end of the three-way intersection at the Eastern end of Huntingmore Road, continuing ahead as if there was still more of Huntingmore Road, you reach The Path. The Path leads to the  █████ ██████, keeping the entire area completely out of sight so that travellers don’t find it.

The █████ ██████ is larger than the entire town itself - and it keeps expanding. It’d be beautiful if there weren’t █████ ███████ throughout the whole area, as there are nicely kept rose bushes which blend with the silver maple trees that surround the clearing. 

It’s no secret that we’re forced to visit the █████ ██████ whenever someone new appears there. Haven makes us go. We walk without control on whether we end up there or not. If someone new appears in the █████ ██████ during school or anything of the sort, classes are called off.

Haven makes us blindly walk there. Our legs move of their own accord. We can’t speak until we stand in front of the new appearance in the █████ ██████. And even then, it’s not us speaking. It’s Haven speaking through us, mocking the victim, laughing at the still figure in front of us until our throats are sore and our voices break.

Nobody really talks about all that. It goes unmentioned. You don’t ask about it either or you’ll get dirty looks from blank, empty eyes. Nobody questions it apart from me, and those who have spoken out and asked travellers about the Outside. 

I’m sixteen and since I remember, I’ve counted how many times we’ve been forced into that sick ritual. Hundreds of times. The █████ ██████ was so much smaller when I was younger. All of my friends, one of which I’ve spoken to about the little ‘visits’ we all have, don’t remember ever entering the █████ ██████ at all. In fact, they don’t even know what the █████ ██████ is.

There’s also something sketchy going on around the Mount Serene Hydroelectric Power Plant. We went there on a school excursion once. It’s kind of a tradition, the excursion, considering the majority of us end up working there once we leave school.

The workers there don’t speak to each other. They all move in time, without a slip-up anywhere. There is no room for mistakes. Their movements are almost mechanical, completely unnatural, and quite frankly, it’s uncomfortable to watch.

I almost want to investigate further, but I know that’s a bad idea.

One last thing I should note.

If you’ve seen us before, and that’s only if you  _ really have seen us _ , you’d know that we have █████. We don’t know why we do - in fact, it’s another thing that goes unmentioned - but personally I think it’s what links us to this town with an iron fist. Without them, I theorise that we’d be able to leave. Haven wouldn’t rule over us anymore.

It’s why those who get sick, the travellers, end up in the █████ ██████ - because, in the midst of their violent, debilitating sickness, they too develop █████ like us, and are inevitably linked to this prison of a town for eternity.

* * *

**Analysis - Matthew Ayres**

This is… vastly different to anything else I’ve read on this hard drive. Like Journal Entry 3, this seems to have come directly from someone who lived in Haven - there’s a name for the author of this document, Emily Lambright. She seems to be a high school student, or fresh out of high school, if you pay attention to the things she talks about.

Thanks to Emily, I’ve been given quite a decent outline to Haven as a whole. Jaska’s band probably stayed in the Songbird Inn that one night they stayed. Still, the redacted location is a mystery. I can’t really seem to gather what exactly is there. Whatever it is, whoever gets sick after visiting Haven ends up there.

The idea of being forced to visit that place against your own will sounds horrifying. Like some sort of cult, except there’s actually a demon. Or whatever Haven is. Seems like a demon’s responsible for all this shit at this point. And with the power plant, and the weird things the workers did - that seems like a distant echo of what happens when the population of the town is forced to visit the redacted location. 

Another thing to note is that nobody except Emily seems to be aware of what’s really going on in Haven. Is there a reason for this? Why isn’t Emily trapped under the illusion which the rest of the residents seem to be under?

Onto the wings. Emily’s theory is that the wings are what link the residents to the town - so maybe, just maybe, the development which we saw in Olli’s audio recording in Document 4, the development of actual, physical wings, is the link being established between him and Haven itself.

Oh shit! This… hang on. Fuck! Everything’s lined up perfectly! This was all I needed!

Could there be a possibility that the band has indeed ended up in this redacted location in Haven? And that sick, unnerving ritual - would that have happened when they arrived that night, if they truly did? That’s why those who get sick are always said to end up in this redacted location!

Could that be why Jaska tried to cut out wings which Marko didn’t even have yet? He was trying to prevent them from being linked to Haven! Could it be, then, on his last night, he tried to cut his own out in a final struggle to stop himself from following in all the other travellers’ footsteps?

But how did he know? What did he see, on that night in Haven, that nobody else did? Is there a possibility he saw something which revealed that he, along with the rest of the band, would meet the same demise as all of the other travellers who had passed through Haven in the past?

Fuck!

I have to tell Tiia. She has to know. I’ve gotta get a hold of her somehow. I’ll go hunting for some sort of contact information, and figure out what’s happened in the last two years since most of these documents were written.

She is the most important person in this entire sprawling mess, and she is the one who might just need my help.


	20. Supplement 1 - Searching

**Supplement 1 - Searching [Altered]**

_Matthew Ayres_

* * *

I guess it’s a little unlucky that I haven’t been able to find a single way to contact Tiia using the hard drive - it would’ve been the easiest way, but all of her details have been redacted. One good thing is that I have her last name, and that I know she’s a photographer, so maybe there’s something about her online.

^

Her website is only half-finished, with a little note at the bottom saying that the site is still under construction. But something tells me this hasn’t been updated for a long, long time. Maybe even a year. Either way, an email is on the site, so I’m hoping if I try to contact her through that, I’ll get ahold of her.

Her photography’s rather impressive. She’s got concert photos of a band here, too, and lots of them. Is there a possibility this could be Jaska’s band?

Hell, that means I’ve finally got a name for the band. █████ ██ ███ ████ - a very interesting, yet intriguing name. And I can finally see their faces! Nothing’s blanked out!

I wouldn’t be able to tell who’s who, I don’t think. There are still some missing information points about who does what in the band - I do know that Jani plays the bass, but that’s really all I think. Unless my head’s started to forget particular details, because if I’m honest, I wouldn’t be surprised. This is a lot to think about.

Thought I’d drop a few photos of them in here. They’re really quite sweet. And it’s nice to see them all together now, even if I don’t really know which name matches which face.

[image removed]

-

[image removed]

-

[image removed]

* * *

**A fifth note from the Editors -**

**_We have altered some of this document to protect you from the lies which Matthew speaks._ **

**_We remind you not to believe anything he says._ **

**_The photographs that Matthew had inserted into this document are not photographs of the band Matthew is foolishly looking for, so we have removed them._ **

**_He will not be able to contact Tiia. We have made sure of it._ **


	21. Voice Log 3 - ███████

**Voice Log 3 - ███████**

* * *

███████: Emily, this is for you. Please burn this tape once you’ve listened to it. I don’t want you getting into any danger just because of me.

[He sighs.]

███████: I’m going to try and escape this hellhole tonight. I know you wanted to come with me, but we can’t risk it. 

[Another sigh, and the sound of the speaker tapping his foot on the floor.]

███████: I promise I’ll come back for you. It’s just… well, you know. After we saw that band, and after I wrote that little journal entry I showed you, I just can’t forget about them. There are seven lives on the line. It’s different to normal, when it’s only one or two people - this time there’s seven people who are going to end up in the fucking █████ ██████ if I don’t do something about it.

[A pause.]

███████: And you told me that one of them saw the █████ ██████? Who knows what that’ll do to him? He’s gonna know everything. And without someone who knows what’s going on, he’s gonna go insane with all that knowledge and a complete inability to speak about it. I have to be that someone, Emily.

███████: You said it was the one with the tattoos, and he went on a drunken stumble through the forest and found it all before returning to the Middle Ocean - so I’m going to try and find him somehow and tell him some things, tell him what he needs to do. It’s gonna be ugly, and he’s not going to want to do what he needs to, but it’s the only way.

███████: It’s the only way. And then maybe… maybe they’ll be safe. 

███████: I don’t know why it’s them that really hit me. Like, I’ve seen so many other travellers since I remember seeing someone new appear in the █████ ██████. But they were so happy together. And they really loved each other - I honestly can’t bear to be the fault of that beautiful friendship being torn apart.

███████: Em, just remember. I _will_ come back for you - I promise. No matter what happens once I leave Haven, I will come back for you so we can both be free.

███████: I’ve never said something in particular before, because I’ve reserved it for a special person, for a particular moment. That person is you, and that moment is now. I know it’s not the best circumstances, but just in case I never get to say it again… I love you, Em.

███████: See you on the other side.

* * *

**Analysis - Matthew Ayres**

Another document by someone who lives in Haven, clearly. There’s a name, but it’s been redacted, and I can’t alter the file in any way to see who recorded this, unfortunately.

This was such a bittersweet document to read. 

The speaker clearly knew he was getting himself into a high level of peril for simply attempting to escape, let alone successfully pulling it off. Yet he still told Emily (is this Emily Lambright, he’s talking to?) he’d come back for her and help her escape too.

There’s also a very important detail in here that I skimmed over at first. The speaker is specifically leaving to save the band - Poets of the Fall - from the demise in which they may have eventually met.

Does that mean he entirely failed in doing so? I wouldn’t know. He notes that one of the members, who had been at the Middle Ocean that night (Olli, Jari and Jaska) had taken a bit of a wander and seen this redacted location that Haven seems to revolve around.

But does Jaska’s insanity indicate that the speaker also failed in helping him to understand the situation and failed in making sure nothing would happen to the band. Why? Why did the speaker fail in doing so? Did something happen to him? Was his escape unsuccessful?

The speaker says that after seeing that, ‘he’s (Jaska’s) gonna know everything’ and ‘he’s gonna go insane with all that knowledge and a complete inability to speak about it’. Does this mean that Jaska actually did see this redacted location that night?

If so, that would give a direct explanation to why Jaska’s all fucked up in the head. I mean, that redacted place is where all the other travellers who have fallen ill have ended up, so it must be some sort of demonic graveyard or whatever fucked up way Haven has decided to display its victims.

And, well, I’ve gotta be honest… if that’s what the redacted location is, then I’ve no doubt that anyone would have gone mad just by seeing all that.


	22. Video Footage 2 - Surveillance Report

**Video Footage 2 - Surveillance Report**

* * *

Summary by Tyyne Lahti -

This is Tiia’s third day in her room since she arrived here. While she’s generally quite restless and frustrated, pacing back and forth, she eventually gets exhausted and has intermittent periods of rest and/or sleep.

I’ve been told to write this report in an emotionally neutral way, but as I know the circumstances of why she’s in here, I can’t help but feel bad for her. She must be so darn scared. And betrayed, even. The police had to lie about sending out search parties to look for her friends to get her to cooperate with them.

Emotionally, she’s an absolute wreck. Her eyes couldn’t be any redder - she’s been crying for hours. I’ve been watching her surveillance footage ever since she arrived - I’m her assigned nurse, or whatever you want to call me - and if I’m honest, I wish I was allowed to go into that room and comfort her.

I don’t know why they’re treating her like this. They don’t treat any of the other patients in the way that they’re treating Tiia. I guess it’s maybe just while they’re evaluating her, but they’re not going to get accurate results if they work her up and stress her out like they are now.

I’ve read the documents about her. Listened to the emergency call records. The police think she’s suffering from a form of intense psychosis or schizophrenia, but I’m not so sure. I’ve been a nurse in the mental health ward for almost 20 years at this point - I feel like I’d be able to recognise those symptoms more than a police officer who’s just judged her based on the ten minutes they’ve spent with her.

While there’s just so much proof that the people she wants the police to search for don’t exist, something tells me she isn’t as delusional as the police officers have been saying behind her back. They do indeed think she’s crazy. I haven’t even talked to her, but I have this gut feeling that she’s not crazy nor is she lying or trying to waste the police force’s time. She knows something about whatever’s going on.

Maybe she’s involved in something far beyond our understanding. Something beyond what we normal folks would consider reality. 

I’d love to find out, honestly.

* * *

**Analysis - Matthew Ayres**

This is recent. Like, really recent, compared to the other files on this hard drive. Most of them are from last year, but this file is from this year - only eight months ago.

It seems to me that Tiia’s been admitted to a hospital of sorts, possibly to be evaluated by the police to see what’s going on. I’m not surprised that she’s crying and pacing and all restless - she’s just had her searching efforts pulled out from underneath her and put away on the highest shelf.

And the fact that the police lied about sending a search party out for the band, how fucking disgusting! They’re treating her awfully, just because she’s involved in something they don’t particularly understand. I can’t even explain how angry this is making me feel. She’s gone through so much and  _ this _ is how they treat her? Fucking ridiculous.

At least someone’s wanting to treat Tiia nicely. Tyyne, the author of this report, seems to want to know more. I wonder if she ever approached Tiia and asked her. And if so, could Tyyne help us find the band if Tiia responds to my email? She could help us - she seems interested enough.


	23. Supplement 2 - A Reply

**Supplement 2 - A Reply**

* * *

Email conversation started at 2:34am, 25/08/2021 between Tiia [ ██████████] and Matthew [█████████]

Tiia: 

Hey Matthew, this actually isn’t Tiia replying - I’m Tyyne, her nurse who’s monitoring her stuff. Now, don’t get all frantic because I’ve read what you’ve sent her (she was the one who read the email, but she couldn’t reply without getting caught - so she asked me to write the reply instead) because I’m on your side too. 

I’ve been with her since she was admitted at the beginning of this year. From what you’ve said that you know, you really do seem to know what’s going on. More than what I know, that’s for sure. She’s told me a lot about Poets, but not as much as what these documents have.

Tiia’s completely astounded by the possibility that there’s a whole lot of information she’s never read before on that hard drive, but I wouldn’t recommend sending it through. It’s a wonder I can send this email without being flagged.

You said there’s still more on there, so I’d say keep looking through what’s there. If anything notable shows up, maybe email it through here. I can pass it onto Tiia whenever possible. She might be able to email you back herself sometimes (it depends on whether we can get away with it), because she’s apparently got a lot to say to you.

Let me just say that the validation Tiia's gotten from you for all the things she’s told me has been a complete relief for her. She’s got this new level of energy that I’ve honestly never seen in her before. Matthew, if I’m honest, I think you’ve given her the hope she had lost so long ago.

\- Tyyne

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> heya! so today (the 9th of october) marks one whole month (!!!) since i started writing the morpho catalyst! i didn't have much inspiration today but i really wanted to give all of you a little chapter (but very important, in terms of lore/plot) to celebrate the occasion!


	24. Journal Entry 4 - Emily

**Journal Entry 4 - Emily**

* * *

They’re here.

Haven made us walk over to the █████ ██████ at around 5pm. It’s now midnight - we’ve all just gotten back home - and I can’t sleep. Usually if it happens this late, I pass out from exhaustion once we all get home, but there was something about this group of people that pains me to think about.

Their arrival means that ███████ wasn’t successful. I almost hope that now he’ll come back and help me escape too, but I’ve got this awful gut feeling that ███████ won’t be coming back.

Nobody remembers him anymore. It’s as if he was never a resident here. Even his twin brother, Jackson, doesn’t even remember him. He said that he’s always been an only child, and then gave me a dirty look. I don’t want to think about what all this might mean, considering that something along the lines of this situation happens whenever a traveller disappears and appears in the █████ ██████. 

The one thing I couldn’t help but notice was that the woman in that group, who went on the photography trip, didn’t show up in that awful place. She wasn’t in the █████ ██████. How? I’d have no idea - she most definitely saw us, no doubt about it. Only six ███████ appeared in the █████ ██████ instead of seven like ███████ and I thought.

I don’t like looking at their faces. Still, and empty, yet capturing such an intense pain. Sometimes the ███████ have tears running down their faces, or eyes shut. Some of them are grimacing, some holding their hands over their ears, some clawing at their backs in a helpless manner.

Their █████ crumple behind them or spread majestically depending on their situation.

I stayed a little later than everyone else. Just to look. Particularly at the one with the tattoos - something looked a bit off, and now I know. There’s a shard missing from him, near his mouth. It’s not big, quite tiny actually, but it’s enough to reveal something that makes me want to be sick just thinking about it.

I already knew that the ███████ used to be people. That was obvious on its own. I didn’t know, however, that the fucking ███████ still breathe. As if they were still alive. As if they were still people. Even though I know they aren’t either of those things. But the one with the goddamn tattoos, there were cold breaths coming from through the gap that the missing shard made.

I hate to admit that I’ve even considered this idea, but I think everyone in the █████ ██████ is still partly alive. Trapped underneath their casing, but partly alive nonetheless.

Does that mean that it would be possible to break them out?

* * *

**Analysis - Matthew Ayres**

The first half of this is so awful to read. About the guys actually showing up in whatever this redacted location is, and how Emily felt about it all. And her theory that their arrival means that her friend, whatever his name is, failed in trying to warn Jaska. Why would that be the case? What happened? How did everything go wrong? He seemed so sure that he’d be able to help, so what happened to him?

The next thing she notes is that nobody in Haven remembers her friend anymore after he left. Even his twin brother, Jackson, who would have known him better than anyone else, seems to think that he was always an only child. It does indeed sound similar to what happens when the travellers who’ve fallen ill finally reach their final stage of their illness.

And while Emily and her friend - let’s call him, oh, I don’t know, Cameron, because the letters match up - thought that Tiia would be in danger (that’s who Emily is referring to in the document), the results of the band appearing in the redacted location shows that she never got sick in the first place, despite both Emily and Cameron thinking that she would.

I hadn’t even thought of that before. In Journal Entry 3, the writer we now know to be Cameron says that Tiia would have seen the residents in the way they really are - with their wings - because she was taking photos of them. But there’s evidence here that she never got sick. In fact, she was the only person caring for the band when their own illnesses progressed. So why is that? Is there a specific reason, or was it just chance?

Thinking back, I think Jani’s journal entry says that Tiia only took photos of both Jani and Kapu, so does that mean she never actually saw the residents properly? Is that why she’s considered ‘safe’ from Haven’s wrath, if you could call it that?

Onto the… weird descriptions Emily had for the guys, and maybe for the rest of the people in the redacted location. She describes them as if they were completely unmoving, stuck in one pose as they stand there. And she also mentions the wings, on the backs of the people in the location.

Well hey, that’s kinda weird. But later on she mentions a ‘shard’ missing from Jaska. And that’s when it gets even fucking weirder, because why would there be a shard of something missing from a person?

Continuing on, it just gets weirder. She says things like ‘used to be people’ - does that mean whatever’s in the redacted location, isn’t a group of people just stuck there like I originally thought? Maybe it’s much more. And when she notes that whatever’s in the location ‘still breathes’, it kind of indicates that whatever it is, _isn’t supposed to._ It just makes me feel sick trying to think of all the possibilities.

Emily says she can feel cold air coming in breaths from through the gap that the missing shard left in Jaska, so does that mean that her theory may indeed be correct, and whatever’s in there is still _partly alive_? I can’t forget about her final sentence either. She talks about ‘breaking them out’, does that mean literally or figuratively? Breaking them out of what? A building? A room? A mental barrier?

I’ve read this document over and over just for this one purpose. The redacted word Emily uses, referring to the people in the redacted location is completely incomprehensible. I’d have no idea what she would be saying at all without the little ‘shard’ clue, along with the idea that the things inside the redacted location aren’t supposed to move. 

Lining up the lettering, considering the things Emily has said, and the shard clue, has led me to one possible answer. I hate the answer, but it could be game-changing if this was confirmed.

I think… well, I think that the band, along with all the other lost travellers, have been trapped underneath a layer of something, a 'casing' like Emily said - and in all honesty, using the shard clue, I think it might actually be stone.

The redacted location is a fucking graveyard of angel statues.

I want to throw up.


	25. [ERROR]

**[ERROR]**

* * *

_It’s cold in here._

_I’m trapped inside something. Cradled in its layer of protection, almost. But it presses against me, too, and makes it hard to breathe._

_I’m really scared. But I’m not afraid at the same time. What even is fear? I… I seem to have lost the concept. I’ve forgotten._

_I’m not sure I remember what happened before the here and now. Things seem… fuzzy, jumbled up, translated into a language I don’t understand._

_But then… what languages do I understand?_

_I keep on feeling like I should need to eat, but as time passes - if it truly does pass - I never grow hungry. I’m just constantly awake. Never feeling tired. Just listening to the sounds around me._

_I have no eyes. I cannot see. Yet something lingers, telling me that once, I could see._

_I’m not sure I was even anything before now. Nothing with a name._

_But then, also, I feel like there’s something else. More than one thing, even. I’m not exactly sure what it is._

_Whatever it is, I think… I think it was once important to me._

* * *

**Analysis - Matthew Ayres**

This file was corrupted. Not really sure what it used to be, or its purpose, but I managed to recover some of its contents. 

The things inside here seem innocent enough. But looking closer, reading things like ‘trapped inside something’, almost makes me think of the statues. 

It’d be grabbing at straws here, trying to relate this strange thing to Haven. It barely makes much sense, really. Just a collection of thoughts from someone. Or something, as the author describes themself as. Not even a person.

They seem to have lost concept of a few things. Forgotten, maybe. But forgetting the concept of fear? That’s… different. But then, it’s become clear that forgetting things is of the nature of anything relating to Haven, so maybe this really does mean something.

Could this be a collection of thoughts from someone trapped inside Haven's grasp?


	26. Document 6 - Explorations of Empty Houses, Part II

**Document 6 - Explorations of Empty Houses, Part II**

* * *

Foreword - Tyyne:

After Tiia told me everything, I’ve had a question linger in my mind. Why didn’t she go back to check Marko and Markus’ houses after discovering that they may indeed still be full of clues and information that might be pivotal? I asked her yesterday - that question - and she told me that she was afraid of what she’d find there. 

She told me not to go back, knowing I was curious about it. But I have to see this for myself. I have to see what’s in there, what we might be missing. Because most of all, I want to see all of this. I want to believe it’s all real. That’s why I’m going back for her.

_ House 1: Markus _

Okay, so Tiia said you can only see everything through a camera. So I’ll open it and…

God, she’s not wrong. You  _ can _ see the house through the camera! Markus has blocked out the windows, which is strange on its own, but the electricity has also been disconnected. You can barely see anything in here. 

I think I’ll just take careful steps, because I’m stepping through both nothing and a full house at the same time. Don’t want to step on anything. And knowing that Tiia found some pretty horrifying things inside the other four houses, I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s something equally as bad in here.

There’s hundreds of pieces of paper taped to the wall. Notes, maps, photos, screenshots, all the sorts. It’s as if he’s mapped out his whole life along the walls. And hell, every spare wall is  _ covered _ in papers. There’s even papers on the roof and floor, all converging to one point. Following it leads me to a small front room, with a grand piano in it, and one sentence painted on the wall ahead of the piano which is completely broken in pieces.

“Everything leads to Haven.”

A red painted circle surrounds the sentence. There’s burn marks on the walls in here, and on the grand piano. Some of the white keys have been completely blackened. Lifting the lid of the piano reveals that Markus had attempted to set fire to a group of now unrecognisable photographs inside.

Walking around, there’s stuff everywhere. Was he trying to figure out why he and the rest of his bandmates were so sick? Or why they were experiencing these strange things? There’s even documents and stuff on the mirrors in the bathroom, on the tiles on the floor, everywhere. I’m almost afraid to stand on everything, afraid of ruining whatever knowledge that might be here.

I might have to come back and collect all this. I don’t have enough time to do that now. Who knows what Markus might have found? 

_ House 2: Marko _

The house looked normal until I found the blood. A struggle definitely took place in here, too. Furniture’s been moved and there’s even a hole in the wall in the living room. And from what I can tell, there are two sets of bloody footprints in here. One set looks like they’ve walked in and looked around for something, while the other set is spread out as if they were running away from something.

Looking further, I’ve noticed some drops of blood on the floor decorate the wood like paint. It’s smudged, as if someone ran through it and slipped over. Continuing ahead to the bathroom, the smudges become more evident and more blood is spilled. Some of it is on the walls, now. 

Maybe my reactions are a little insensitive. There’s a lot of blood, no secret about that. And the two sets of footprints are the biggest mystery so far. But I’ve seen things like this before - I’m a nurse, what do you expect - so it’s no longer particularly surprising to me.

More blood gathers in the bedroom. The sheets are soaked. A camera stands in the corner.

The red recording light is still flashing.

I’m going to rewatch it, but I’m… well, I’m possibly a little scared of what I’ll find.

-

_ Marko hums in tune with his guitar. It’s a lazy song, probably because it’s just past midnight and he isn’t feeling the best, but it sounds nice nonetheless. The doorbell rings after a few seconds, and he puts down his guitar to go and check. Why would there be someone at the door at this time of day?  _

_ It’s hard to hear what he says, but the camera does indeed pick it up. _

_ “Oh god, Jaska! W-what have you… come inside, let’s get you cleaned up.” _

_ Clearly, nothing of what happens in the next few minutes is shown. But sounds and the proximity of those sounds indicate that Marko had gone looking for towels and the first aid kit he kept in his bathroom cupboard.  _

_ “Fuck, what’s happened to you?” Marko spoke, desperate for an answer. “You’re- oh shit! How did- did you do this? Please, Jaska, talk to me!” _

_ Marko must have lifted his phone to call an ambulance at this point, because you can hear the dial tone for a few seconds before the phone hits the floor with a crack.  _

_ “What the- Jaska, why did you… damn it!” Marko tries to call again from his now shattered phone, but nothing seems to happen. _

_ When Marko turns back around, Jaska’s standing behind him, holding one of the knives from the kitchen. It’s unsure how exactly he moved that quickly, but by the time Marko really understands what’s going on - a continuation of the time Jaska approached Marko alone while he was quietly rehearsing - the knife slices through his shirt and presses through his skin. _

_ The scream can most definitely be heard from where the camera stands in the bedroom. _

_ And as seconds pass, like a metronome, the screams periodically echo through the house. The screams turn into wheezes and moans as Jaska, who’s somehow still conscious despite how much he’s bleeding himself, carries Marko into the bedroom, bridal style. Crimson soaks Marko’s white t-shirt, the crude tears along his back exposing deep, gruesome cuts. _

_ Jaska carefully places Marko down, letting the sheets soak up the majority of the blood. His eyes are glassy, dazed and shifty as he looks down at Marko from above. Marko, in contrast, lies there, thinking of the burning wildfire that spreads across his back while staring up at Jaska, trying to make sense of it all. _

_ His head’s cloudy, but he’s able to ask one question.  _

_ “W-why?” _

_ Jaska hushes him, voice hoarse from a lack of speaking over the past few days, but he gives Marko a deserving yet vague reply. He sits down next to Marko and looks at him directly in the eyes. _

_ “You’re safe now. That’s all that matters.” _

_ Jaska pauses, sighing. Marko can’t stop staring at the gaping slices that begin at the tops of Jaska’s shoulders and reach down to the middle portion of his back. They’re horrifying. _

_ “I know you won’t understand why. Nobody does. Not even I do. But this effort… it’s to keep us alive. Because I fear that if I don’t do anything, tonight will be our last night.” _

_ Marko doesn’t reply. He’s still breathing, but barely. His bluestone eyes look up into Jaska’s. He seems… satisfied with the vague answer Jaska has just given him. Jaska lays himself down next to Marko. _

_ The pair of them lie in silence, a vivid scarlet blossoming onto the ivory sheets. Marko’s chest only barely rises and falls, while Jaska’s breaths are panicked and heavy. He’s afraid, although in the next few moments he loses the concept of fear altogether.  _

_ The camera footage glitches, and then... they’re gone. _

_ - _

Everything in this house makes a lot more sense now.

* * *

**Analysis - Matthew Ayres**

It’s fascinating to me that Tyyne has become so invested in Tiia’s ordeal. Yet I’m also glad at the same time, considering how much information this document and Tyyne’s investigation actually gave me, because at this point in time when this document was written, Tiia had already been admitted to hospital and would have been unable to investigate the final two houses.

First, onto Markus’ house. The idea that his entire house is full of papers, maps and photographs - almost a printed-out version of this hard drive, if you will - creating a sprawling mess of investigations into Haven itself, or whatever he was investigating in particular, is astounding.

It seems to me that he had spent a decent amount of time researching, and looking for more content to contribute to his research. Why would he be so obsessive over the concept of investigating Haven? Something tells me it’s related to how he was one of two photographers to see the residents with their wings. I theorise he was curious, if not, then scared of what exactly he had found that night?

And he seems to have gotten quite close - I mean, he managed to draw the conclusion that ‘everything leads to Haven’, which he’s absolutely right about. Everything he must have found would have led to one single outcome - Haven, of course.

Marko’s house is a little different. In fact, you could almost compare it to the description Tiia gave to Jaska’s house. I guess it’s because Jaska did the same thing to Marko as he did to himself, creating a similar situation between the two.

I’m almost thankful for the video footage, even though it sounds gruesome as all hell. It fills in the gaps that I was missing, namely the reason behind the blood in both Jaska and Marko’s houses. Like I thought, Jaska had indeed tried to cut out his wings, and then must have travelled to Marko’s house (why? Maybe Marko lives closer to Jaska than any of the other members?) to cut Marko’s out as well.

He believes that doing so will save their lives. I guess it didn’t work.


	27. Voice Log 4 - Emily

**Voice Log 4 - Emily**

* * *

E: I went back to the  █████ ██████ a few hours ago after my shift at work to have another look at the band. And also to make sure I wasn’t going crazy, feeling those breaths from through the gap which the missing shard made. 

E: At a closer look, I found that there were cracks in his wings, too. I’ve never seen something like that before, which was why it was so interesting to look at. They spread across the majority of the stone, branching out like lighting.

E: I moved back around to where the missing shard was and put my hand just in front of the space. There were still breaths coming through, weak like before, but even colder. My hands started to shake because it was that cold.

E: Then I found the other one. Another piece of stone missing from a different statue. He stood next to the one with the tattoos, on his own pedestal still, but reaching over a little. They were looking directly at each other - a detail I hadn’t noticed before.

E: A slightly larger piece was missing on his right hand, just above his thumb. That piece revealed a patch of skin, pale and soft. There was truly a person inside. Probably inside all of the statues. Those people who arrived ten years ago, they’re still trapped. 

E: Awake? Aware? I don’t know. I wonder if they know that they’re even here. Or if it’s just dark, unfamiliar and cold.

E: I did something I don’t think I should have done. I got out my pocket knife and tried to peel away some of the stone from his hand. Tried to see if it would break away. Did the same with the one with the tattoos - I dug the knife through the gap, trying not to hit anything, because, well, there’s a person in there.

E: The scariest thing is that the stone did indeed break away. And now there’s more stone missing from the hand, revealing more skin, and a larger gap over the other guy’s mouth, now exposing a top lip. I don’t want anyone to find them. I don’t want Haven to find them. Because what would happen? What would happen if I took the risk and broke them both free?

E: But then… if I did break them free, what would I do with the other four? I can’t just leave them there. And I can’t force the two broken ones to risk their lives by hiding in plain sight until we find a way to break the others out and get out of here without getting hurt.

E: I wish ███████ was here. Damn it, he’d know what to do.

* * *

**Analysis - Matthew Ayres**

So Emily decided to go back and investigate the statues again. She first confirms again that there are indeed breaths coming from through the gap over Jaska’s mouth, and then notices that there are cracks running along his wings. Could that be a direct reflection of how he tried to cut out his wings and therefore break his link to Haven, but still wasn’t successful? 

Maybe the statues themselves are a direct representation of the link between Haven and the person trapped inside the stone. If the statue is damaged, maybe the person inside attempted to break their link. 

And if I follow that theory up with the evidence that there was a crack in the statue next to Jaska, then I would say that this person may be Marko, considering Jaska tried to break apart Marko’s link to Haven as well. By trying to cut out Marko’s wings along with his own, Jaska weakened the grasp that Haven had on the pair.

Emily says she managed to lift another chip out of both Marko and Jaska with her pocket knife, revealing more of the people inside. Does that mean that she would indeed be able to break the rest of the stone away and help them out?

And yes, what about the other four members? From what I’ve seen of the band’s friendship, Marko and Jaska would outright refuse to leave them behind. If their links are completely unbroken and their statues intact, how would they be set free? Is it even possible, because they are entirely linked to Haven?

I desperately want to know what Emily decides to do in the future.


	28. Supplement 3 - Truth

**Supplement 3 - Truth**

* * *

Email conversation started at 2:34am, 25/08/2021 between Tiia [ ██████████] and Matthew [█████████]

Tiia:

Hey, it’s Tiia. Managed to sneak on here for a short while. I have so much to say to you but I want to hear what you have to say. You know so much more than I do, and have access to things I didn’t even know existed. You didn’t elaborate too much in your first email - it was pretty vague in the aspect I want to know the most about - so I’m hoping you’ll be able to elaborate now. 

My biggest question, probably an obvious one: do you know where the band is?

Matthew:

Yeah. Yeah, I do.

I’m sure you’re aware of what Tyyne found inside Markus’ house? ‘Everything leads to Haven’? Yeah. Everything does lead to Haven. They’re somewhere in that town, trapped, or… I don’t really know. It’s a little unclear, and I have my theories, but you’re not going to like them.

Tiia:

Oh god. You’re serious? Does that mean that they got sick  _ because of Haven _ ? And they’re now trapped there… why? And trapped in what way?

Matthew:

I’m dead serious. And like I said, you’re not going to like the answers I have.

I’m pretty sure they got sick because of Haven. They saw things there that they shouldn’t have - Jani and Markus took photos of the residents and saw their true nature, Olli, Jaska and Jari, under the influence of alcohol, also saw the residents for how they really are, and Marko must have too, when he got his coffee.

Haven’s, well, as you might have noticed, not a normal town. It’s been described as alive, a living entity that’s trying to defend itself and trying to avoid the public eye. The public eye is, well, any travellers who see anything out of the ordinary like your friends did.

They’re being held in a location, one which I’m not too sure of anything about other than it may be an outdoor location, or maybe even a museum of sorts. But then with what I’ve read by a resident named Emily (more on her later), she’s able to access it rather easily which makes me think it’s an open, outside location.

How they’re being kept is about as normal as the town itself (you know, not normal at all) and is, if I’m honest, quite damn terrifying. I hate the idea, and you will too. And the idea doesn’t even sound real - but at this point, with all you’ve experienced, does that even matter?

Anyway, I’m almost completely sure - with backup in documents from Emily - that they’ve been trapped inside this location as angel statues, kept under a layer of stone, preventing them from leaving. There’s a chance they’re still alive underneath that layer, probably horribly disoriented, which is why I hate the idea so much.

Tiia:

Oh, fuck! 

I don’t even know what to say other than that. This is so messed up. And angel statues? What the hell? Is the fact that the statues are displayed as angels significant in any way? I almost want to be sick. What if they are indeed still alive underneath the stone? God, they must be scared out of their minds. I hate it so much. Are you absolutely sure that’s how they’re being kept?

Matthew:

I’m 100% sure. I doubted myself before but no, I’m definitely sure that’s how they’re being kept. I know it isn’t the prettiest idea. I hate it too.

But yes, thanks to Emily, who’s a resident in Haven, I’ve gotten a lot of confirmation about these things. So far, from what I’ve read up to, she’s found them in that location and has been investigating a little. Particularly with Marko and Jaska, because their statues apparently have cracks/chips missing from the stone. And I know why, too. 

Were you particularly aware of what was going on behind closed doors in terms of their sicknesses?

Tiia:

No, no I wasn’t. You’ve got information about that?

Matthew:

I’ve been adding it all together. Along with all that (voice logs from the guys, journals and the like), I’ve patched together a progression timeline of sorts. And with ‘Explorations of Empty Houses’ (yeah, I know about that), it’s explained everything.

They seemed to have, while their illnesses developed, grown wings like the residents of Haven have. They must have laid dormant until their final moments, and it seems to be that their last moments were the same moment their wings emerged from underneath the skin on their backs.

That’s why Olli’s voice recording that you found inside his house has the sound of something moving around in the background, and why he mentions it. It’s a disgusting thought, almost, that there’s something physically  _ moving _ under his skin, but that’s what it was.

And that’s why there’s blood in Jaska and Marko’s house. Jaska tried to cut his out first (I’m not sure whether he succeeded or not) and then walked down the street to Marko’s house because he was desperate to at least try to save one of the other guys, where he tried to do the same for Marko, I think.

There’s a lot to talk about, and quite frankly, none of it is pretty.


	29. Journal Entry 5 - ██████

**Journal Entry 5 - ██████**

* * *

██ ████ ██ ███████ █████ ███ █ ████ ████ ███████ ██ ████████ ██████ █████. █ ██ ████████, ████, █ ███, ███ █ █████ █’██ ████ ██ ██ ███ ███████ ████████. █’█ ████████ ██ ████ █ ██████ dizzy, ███ █████ ████’█ ████ because of all the blood I’ve lost. █’█ ██████ █ ███ hitchhike my way to Atlanta ██████ █████ catches up with me, ███ █ ████ ██ doubts ████ ███████ █████ pick up someone who’s covered in blood, let alone pick up someone who doesn’t exist on any government records. █████ ████ ███ ███████, ███ ██ ███ █████ ██ ████ ████ ██ ███ █████ █████ ██ ██. I don’t have much time, █ ███’█ █████. █ ███’█ ████ ████ █ ███ ██ ███████ ██████ - it’s not like I have a phone or anything that would work outside of █████. ██’█ █████████ ████ █ catch up with that band ██████ ████ start getting sick. █ ████ ██ ████ ██ the one with the tattoos ███ ████, ██ ███ ████ ██████ ██ ███████’█ ████. █ ████ █ photo of each member of the group ███ █████ any information I knew about them ██ ███ ████. █████████ that’ll help me a little ██ ████ █ ███ actually find them somehow.

* * *

**Analysis - Matthew Ayres**

Most of this is redacted, so it’s hard to figure out what exactly is going on here. But from what I can gather, I think this might have been written by Cameron, Emily’s friend. But there’s also a chance that Emily may have left Haven too, possibly to search for Cameron, and that this document is written by her. 

* * *

**A sixth note from the Editors -**

**_He must not know._ **

**_We apologise for the necessary redactions we were required to make in this document._ **


	30. Video Footage 3 - The House of Eddie McClay

**Video Footage 3 - The House of Eddie McClay**

* * *

“Residents who ask about the Outside also fall prey to Haven’s awful sickness. Eddie McClay was one of these people, who had asked two passing backpackers about the Outside, both of which ended up in the █████ ██████.” Emily explained, introducing the situation. 

███████ was next to continue. “He was the next person to appear in the █████ ██████ afterwards, and soon the memory of Eddie faded into nothing. We were good friends with Eddie - you could say he was the third member of our group - and tonight… well, tonight we’re going to look through his house to see if anything’s left.”

Emily films ███████ climbing through a window and then passes the camera up to him, allowing herself to climb up into the house as well. At ███████’s first glance, the house seems empty, but the moment he swings the camera around to face the room he’s standing in, the house seems exactly how they remember it to be.

“Oh, shit! Emily, check this out!” ███████ whispers harshly, gesturing for Emily to look through the camera.

The pair can indeed see Eddie’s house in full from through the lens of the camera. And boy, is it a mess in there. Note after note after note plastered on the walls and stuck to the roof. Ink splotches everywhere. Writing on the walls in… what’s probably blood. Writing in other languages, languages which Eddie didn’t know, that was for sure.

Reaching the living room, a whole entire wall with writing on it was revealed. There were so many words that it was hard to actually read what was there, but eventually the pair managed to decipher it.

_I bleed and it bleeds with me. It is me. I am it. We are one and the same. I am its eyes. I am the body which carries its heavy burden willingly. The pain it causes is a gift to me. Sweet, sweet smoky air. Sharp, yet blunt at the same time, a smooth shape with a strength I cannot even begin to comprehend. As I lay awake every night it is what comforts me and assures me that the next day I will see it in the corner of my eye. In the day it keeps me quiet. Forbids me from speaking about it. But I do not mind. If that is what it wishes, then that is what I will do. Sometimes all I want to do is speak about it. A song. A lovely chime of words telling the world about the wonderful thing that lives in my flesh. For they too, when they hear of it, will also feel it under their own skin. It is above me, a force to be reckoned with, with a reason to be feared. When it stands in front of you too, you shall bow in its presence and cower in its shadow. And then the shot echoes. Yet it’s not a shot - no, it’s a feeling. A feeling of immense dread. I once stood in the shadow of it, and I too felt this dread, but it spared me, and that is why I willingly follow the force of a gale, the one that controls every movement, every sound, every light, every word, every ripple, every whisper, every sparkle, every step, every motion, every thought, every mind, every time, every turn of the page, every horrified scream, every bubble that surfaces in the ocean, every wave, every gust of wind, every breath, every heartbeat, every blink, every twitch, every turn, every creature, every day, every being, every town, every one._

“Hey… um, ███████, can we maybe come back another time?” Emily asks, her voice shaky. “I don’t like this one bit.”

* * *

**Analysis - Matthew Ayres**

Some more content surrounding Emily and Cameron, this time talking about a third member of their group. Eddie, who was possibly even aware of the happenings in the town like they were, had asked about the Outside, and fallen ill. 

The house seems to follow a similar trend to Markus’ house, maybe not papers plastered on the walls of research about Haven itself but insane little drabbles about whatever was going on in Eddie’s head before he passed through that final threshold.

Gotta be real, reading that passage on the wall, I hated every second of that. Every words seemed to drip with something disgusting, as if my compulsion to keep reading was sourced from the previous word before that, and before that, and before that, and before that, and before that, and before that, and before that, and before that, and before that, and before that, and before that, and before that, and befo-

[ERROR - FILE CORRUPTED]

Huh. That was weird. I feel a little dizzy after that. Gonna maybe have a break before I look at the next document, I think.


	31. Document 7 - A Study of ‘Asthenia’

**Document 7 - A Study of ‘Asthenia’ (Incomplete)**

* * *

_Markus Kaarlonen_

I’ve never written something like this before. I’m certainly not a scientist nor am I a professional in any way. But I guess someone has to make some records. So I’ve nicknamed whatever me and the rest of the band is suffering from - Asthenia - so I can write a timeline to the best of my abilities. Originally I wasn’t too sure why I was even writing this, because I outright refused the idea of giving this to someone, but I think if something bad happens, Tiia should get this. She deserves it.

Extra notes: I’m not really going to be documenting Jaska’s symptoms. He’s an irregularity among us all in terms of these symptoms. Oh. And don’t expect this to be professionally worded or anything of the sort. The first four records don’t have any little notes from me because I only started writing this on the 24th of August, so I don’t really remember much. And things were so much milder back then.

Days since visiting Haven

| 

Clinical signs  
  
---|---  
  
25

| 

Insomnia  
  
65

| 

Headaches  
  
90

| 

Occasional stomach aches  
  
125

| 

Constant stomach aches, stiff joints, vomiting

  


_24th August - Olli’s got it worse than all of us here. I mean, yeah, we’ve all got these awful stomach aches, but he can’t even keep any food down. Wish we knew how to fix this. He’s staying at my place at the moment._  
  
160

| 

Loss of appetite, absence of stomach aches

  


_28th September - Now we all feel fine. Maybe outside the stiff joints. Well, let me rephrase that. We’re still feeling pretty shit, just not bothered by the stomach aches anymore._  
  
170

| 

Paranoia, occasional back pain, coughing up blood

  


_8th October - There’s this mounting feeling. Like something’s going to happen soon, something awful, but I know it’s going to be fine. We’re going to be fine._

  


_No, we’re not. We’re not going to be fine._  
  
190

| 

Occasional panic attacks, hallucinations

  


_28th October - My fucking god, I thought I just saw Olli in my house. Heard him walking around too. Scared the shit out of me. And now I’m tasting blood, but there’s no blood in my mouth. I hate this._  
  
210

| 

Regular panic attacks, rapid loss of weight

  


_17th November - I had three of them today. One lasted a whole hour. It was like I couldn’t breathe at all, my chest was too tight to take in any breaths. Yesterday Jari and Marko had one at the same time. Studio time is not a good idea._  
  
220

| 

Almost complete inability to sleep

  


_27th November - All I want is to sleep, but I can’t. Nothing’s happening. My mind won’t shut the fuck up._  
  
235

| 

Constant back pain, rapid heartbeat

  


_12th December - It hurts so much. And it moves. It fucking moves. I saw it. There’s something under there! I almost threw up when I saw it move under Jari’s shirt today. It moves almost constantly. Shifting around._  
  
240

| 

Complete absence of all symptoms 

  


_17th December - I don’t even want to get to any conclusions here. A complete absence of symptoms. I feel better than I have been feeling in the last goddamn eight months. Surely it’s just a decoy or something. False security. Am I going to die before I can make my next note?_  
  
245

| 

_17th December - note:_ ** _make notes on anything after photoshoot night (22nd December)! Keep watch for any reappearing symptoms afterward._**  
  
* * *

**Analysis - Matthew Ayres**

God damn! Thanks to Markus, we’ve now got a timeline! 

I shouldn’t be so excited, though. This document is just pure suffering. Anger, frustration, fear. All of it. And from what the final note suggests, Markus never finished writing this report. The 22nd of December must have been the last night the band was ‘alive’ of sorts - I’ve almost no doubt that they’re still alive under the statues’ imprisonment, but this must have been the last day that the world knew about them.

What fascinates me is the complete absence of symptoms at the end. I simply can’t believe that their sickness, which Markus has given the name ‘Asthenia’, seemed to have given the whole group a sense of false security just days before they all disappeared.

Something else that really fascinates me is that the range of symptoms is so ridiculously immense, I wouldn’t be surprised if this collection of symptoms would match to any other sickness in a whole listing of thousands, even millions of illnesses. 

Fascination number three is how fucking long these symptoms lasted. No fucking wonder Tiia knew something was up. And no fucking wonder they had to call off their shows. One question I have though, is why did they still continue with studio sessions when they were as sick as Markus has detailed here? It just doesn’t feel right.

I feel like I need to remind myself that this sickness apparently messed with their heads a little more than they were aware. The whole ‘stubbornness’ thing, the inability to seek medical help. It seems like they were aware that they were very, very sick, but they didn’t really ever think about seeking medical help, or tried to and failed, or even outright denied it.


	32. Supplement 4 - For You

**Supplement 4 - For You**

* * *

Email conversation started at 2:34am, 25/08/2021 between Tiia [ ██████████] and Matthew [█████████]

Matthew:

Hey, Tiia. Just read through this document that was written by Markus. He said that he wanted you to have it if anything happened to him.

[FILE ATTACHED: Document 7 - A Study of ‘Asthenia’]

It seems like Markus documented a lot of things. Maybe looking back at the stuff in his house is worth doing.

Tiia:

I’m at a complete loss for words, honestly. There’s so much they never told me. So much they hid from me, too. I mean, hallucinations? Coughing up blood, panic attacks? They hid all of that from me. The things that, if I found out about them, would make me personally carry them into my car and take them to hospital. 

In all honesty I don’t know why I hadn’t done that already.

I think you should know that they told me that they’d seen a doctor. All of them had, apparently. But after reading this, I’m not so sure.

There’s no mention of him visiting a doctor at all here. I don’t think they ever went. But why did they lie to me? Do you have  _ any  _ idea about whether they actually truly did see a doctor?

Matthew:

I’m sorry, Tiia, but at this point I don’t think they did truly see a doctor. I don’t know why they lied. I’ll see if I can find any journal entries talking about it for you. But at this point I think that’s what happened. 

I remember theorising, after reading a journal entry, that their sickness prevented them from processing the thought of seeing a doctor. Or that it prevented them from seeing the world in the way it really was - for example, the person who wrote the journal entry kept trying to see a doctor but every time he tried to go, it was closed.

So I think we can both gather that this sickness (should we start calling it Asthenia or no?) affects people in different ways. 

Tiia:

Yeah, I think we can make that conclusion.

It hurts that they lied to me, but then your explanation maybe gives a reason as to why they did that. To be honest, at this point, I have no reason to be angry at them. There was something beyond our understanding going on, and it was messing with them in ways that they weren't even aware of. I just want them home. Fuck, Matthew, I miss them so much. 

Anyway, I’ll see if Tyyne can go and take some photos of the documents in Markus’ house for you. I’ll make sure they’re sent through straight away.

Matthew:

Tiia, I know this is gonna sound dumb, cause I never knew the band, but I will try my damndest to get them back, even if it means I walk myself into Haven and get their asses out of there.

It doesn't make any sense, but there is _something_ about them that I can't let go of. 


	33. Voice Log 5 - Emily, █████ & █████

**Voice Log 5 - Emily, █████ **& █████****

* * *

Emily: Right, okay. It’s currently, uh… 3:06am Central Standard Time, on the 28th of August, 2021, in Haven, Tennessee. My name is, um, Emily Lambright, I’m one of the residents in this town. This voice log is going to document what may possibly be the first time someone’s attempted to break a traveller out of their casing in the  █████ ██████, let alone two.

Emily: I’ve got everything in place to keep them safe. A place for them to stay. A way to supply food and water to them, too. And maybe I’ll be able to buy a phone to keep them in close contact. They can’t just go wandering around. It’d be way too obvious that they’re not just residents - we all know everyone here.

Emily: That’s why I have to be really fucking careful about what I’m about to do. Because if I’m not careful, people will notice. And these guys are staying safe, even if it means something happens to me. They are important to someone, I know that. 

Emily: I think the one thing I’m scared about is what their physical and mental states are going to be like when they wake up. What if they can’t walk? Or they don’t want to come with me? They’re going to have to. 

Emily: God, there are so many holes in this plan.

_ [Emily’s footsteps can be heard in the background as she approaches the two statues she plans on freeing.] _

Emily: Okay, I’ve got, um, a chisel here. Which one should I start with? I’ve gotta be quick. I’ll just start with the one with the tattoos. The stone falls away kind of easily, it’s a little hard in some places but it lifts and cracks away.

Emily: I’ve opened up one side of his face. He’s just… there. Glassy eyes. Barely breathing, mouth slightly parted. Not blinking at all. I’ll see if I can tear it away a little faster. 

_ [Time passes, and the sound of Emily chiselling away at the stone that covers the person in front of her gets louder.] _

Emily: It’s harder to crack away the stone around his wings. If… if he actually has them. I didn’t bring a camera to find out. But if he does, he’ll know. He’ll feel that extra weight. I don’t want to say it, but it’s going to scare him shitless. I’m used to it. He’s not. And neither is his friend.

Emily: The apprehension as to when he’s going to properly wake up… if he ever does… is immense. I’m just waiting for a blink, or a twitch. Anything at all. I’m chiselling away his arms at the moment. Still nothing. Maybe I have to get rid of all the stone entirely?

_ [More time passes - but it’s not long before a loud thump is picked up by the microphone.] _

Emily: Oh shit! Hey, hey. It’s okay. Can you stand on your own? Do you… do you remember your name?

Jaska: I’m… Jaska, I… think. It’s the o-only thing I remember.

Emily: Okay, Jaska, my name’s Emily. Can you wait for me for a few minutes? I’m going to get your friend out. What’s his name?

Jaska: Why is he… he seems familiar. I think I know him. I… I don’t know his name though.

Emily: That’s okay. Hopefully he’ll remember.

_ [Emily continues working away at the statue which accompanies Jaska. Jaska, meanwhile, is muttering to himself quite a fair bit, just a confused little drabble of words strung together loosely.] _

Emily: Almost there, I think. You’re still okay back there?

Jaska: ...Yeah. Who… how are you… did I used to be like him? Trapped like him?

Emily: You were - I got you out. 

_ [Jaska seems satisfied with that reply for now. Emily cuts back one last piece of stone before yet another figure suddenly falls from his pedestal, confused.] _

Emily: Fuck! Hey, are you alright? My name’s Emily, do you remember yours?

Marko: It’s, um… Marko. At least, I think it is. That’s what my head tells me.

Emily: Okay, good. Can you stand? We’re going to head to my place. You two need to stay safe.

Marko: Uh, I think I can. Who’s that? He… do I know you?

Jaska: I… think so. 

_ [Emily ushers the two confused men down the back of the neighbourhood. They open their mouths to speak but Emily quietens them. They seem to gather eventually that something about what’s happening is forbidden in some way.] _

Emily: In here, okay? There are two mattresses for you in there, some food if you’re hungry, and a glass of water on the bedside table. Get some rest, yeah? I’ll be back to see how you’re going tomorrow. If you need me, or just want someone to explain what's going on, I'm upstairs asleep on the couch.

* * *

**Analysis - Matthew Ayres**

This is happening right now. I don’t know how, but it is. It’s currently 3:06am in Central Standard Time, on the 28th of August as I’m writing this analysis. How do I even have access to this file if it hasn’t even been recorded yet? How the fuck does that work?

Well, I think the most important thing here is that Emily has freed Marko and Jaska and hidden them somewhere in her home, away from view of the rest of the residents. The reason behind why she just did what she did exactly isn’t really detailed here, which makes it hard to figure her motivations, but maybe she feels the same as me.

We both seem to feel that there’s something about the band that you just can’t let go of.

What I noticed is that Emily says something about not being able to tell whether Jaska or Marko actually have their wings because she doesn't have a camera. Does that mean that even she cannot see her own wings, and it's nothing but a sensation until their appearance is captured through a camera or while someone's drunk? 

Interesting thing to note is that neither Marko nor Jaska seem to remember much. Only their names. Is that a result of their connection to Haven? They’re now considered residents, stripped of their pasts? Yet Emily doesn’t seem to think they’d be able to pass as residents, hence why she’s hidden them away. 

Is there a possibility they may never regain their past memories? Or is it just ‘The Haven Effect’ or whatever (what a silly name lol) that keeps their memories separate from what they’re currently able to access/think about? Could their memories return over time, or could their memories return the moment they leave Haven?

So many questions, again. I can’t wait to see where this goes. 


	34. Journal Entry 6 - Marko

**Journal Entry 6 - Marko**

* * *

I’m so confused. Scared, even. While the other person in here - his name is Jaska, he told me - is now fast asleep, I’ve spent the last hour trying to reorder the patchy memories and thoughts inside my head inside this dark room in the little leatherbound book Emily left by the door.

Emily left a note on the floor next to the paper bag with some food in it. It explains a little, but I feel like there’s more. More she hasn’t said yet. Wherever I came from - that strange, statue-filled field I woke up in - something tells me I wasn’t supposed to be able to leave. Same thing for Jaska. 

I think we used to be statues. Like the others standing next to where we used to. And then there’s the question on how Emily managed to make us living and breathing human beings instead of how we used to be. 

But then I don’t understand why, out of the hundreds standing there, Emily picked us. Why are we so special? Her letter doesn’t explain that at all. All it tells us is that we need to stay hidden, and that the door that leads to the rest of the house is locked so that nobody finds Jaska and I.

And if she fears for our safety, then why did she risk doing whatever she did to make us human? She’s risking a lot for us, for a completely unexplainable reason. 

I’ve walked up the smaller staircase from our room to find a little living room there, where Emily’s staying. She’s staying close to us, watching closely. I don’t quite understand her. I want to, but something tells me I’ll never get a full understanding of her. 

There’s something in her eyes, something I saw when I first woke up. A drive? Fierceness? A reason. It’s almost as if she’s doing this for someone else - someone she can’t let go of.

Either way, there’s something lingering around me too. While my first thought when I had time to think was that I was nobody before, nothing but a solid piece of stone, something doesn’t seem right about that. So many things contradict that idea - like how I  _ recognise _ Jaska from somewhere. If I was nobody before, how would I know him?

Then that question leads into more. If I was human before I was stone, how did I become stone? What caused it? And does that mean that every other person in that field used to be a person too, now trapped? 

But if I was human, how come I can’t remember anything from before?

* * *

**Analysis - Matthew Ayres**

And so it continues. 

Personal thoughts collected into a little journal entry have given me a little insight into Marko’s head. The questions he asks really do indicate that he, well… he doesn’t remember anything at all. His confusion is beyond evident - it almost seems to leak out of the document itself. He’s asking so many questions about everything, from Emily’s motivations to where his origins lie. 

Emily’s motivations to Marko may be unclear, but to me they’re quite obvious. I think Emily’s motivation is Cameron, the very person who left to save the band before they appeared in the redacted location, and she is possibly trying to carry on what he tried to do by breaking the band out of their casings. 

Hopefully Emily gives the pair much more of an explanation later. I think they deserve one.

I think now's the moment I should be telling Tiia about this. Now that I know they've been broken out and are hopefully in a safe place.

* * *

**A seventh note from the Editors -**

******_We apologise, again, for what we will be doing. Although it is not a sincere apology. We could not care less about what you want._ **

**_This development will not be taking the direction you hoped it would._ **

**_Our efforts will be made clear, very soon._ **

**_We hope you are aware that our allegiance does not lie with Matthew, nor Tiia, Tyyne or Emily, and neither does it lie with the band._ **


	35. Supplement 5 - Urgency

**Supplement 5 - Urgency**

* * *

Email conversation started at 2:34am, 25/08/2021 between Tiia [ ██████████] and Matthew [█████████]

Matthew:

Tiia, this is rather urgent. As in, this is the biggest development since we started talking.

Tiia:

What is it? Go on, go on. 

Matthew:

Emily’s broken Marko and Jaska out. Out of their casings. It seems to be linked to how Jaska tried to remove his wings, along with Marko’s, hence why I think Emily hasn’t been able to free the other four. But they’re safe for now, I think, if that’s what you want to know.

Tiia:

Fuck! Are you serious? Oh god, Matthew. That means at least two of them are okay. Is there anything different about them? Anything that’s changed? And how recent is this? Please tell me everything you know.

Matthew:

So far, there’s a gaping, obvious difference between the Marko and Jaska that you knew in comparison to the Marko and Jaska that Emily just saved. That ‘gaping difference’ being that they barely remember anything from before. I mean, they barely recognise each other, let alone have any recollection of their lives before they were trapped.

Marko seems to have a sense of something along the lines of ‘there was a time when I used to know the person who’s asleep in front of me’ but can’t figure out why or how that’s the case. He’s awfully confused. Emily hasn’t explained anything further to them yet, but that’s because it’s the middle of the night for them at the moment. I suspect she’ll be explaining all she knows to them very soon.

She broke them out maybe an hour ago. Maybe a little more.

Tiia:

This is so much to think about. I want to scream and cry, yet I want to give out a sigh of relief at the same time. I don’t really know what to think about it all.

The sheer concept of neither of them remembering anything scares me, Matthew. Because that means that they don’t remember me, and if I’m going to end up seeing them again after all this, everything from before is lost. Gone. All they’ve got is a sense that they used to know me.

Matthew:

I know, I know. I’m trying to figure it all out, too. 

Tiia:

I know it’s not possible for me, and I can’t expect you to do what I’m about to ask because you got involved in this by chance, but can we consider trying to find Haven again? To get them home, where they should be. Not in some messed up, brainwashed town.

Matthew:

Well, Tiia, you remember what I said before. I want to help you find them. I’ve gotten too deep into this shit to  _ not  _ get involved. It’s almost an obligation now. And it’s not because I feel like I need to help because you can’t do much to help on your own, it’s because, well, um, I have another reason.

It’s complicated, but the basic idea is that I’m a clueless, brain-dead dude trying to get through trade school because I have no direction in life, and now that I’ve gotten involved into this, I finally feel like I can actually be a part of something that matters. But that just sounds stupid, I know.

Aside from me, though. Is there any chance they’d let you leave the ward anytime soon? Can Tyyne help to try and get you out of there? Because if I go to Haven, did you want to come too? Not to put yourself into danger, but because I know you deserve to be there. We can try and find a way to keep you safe from Haven.

Tiia:

You’re right. I should come. I’ll see what I can do.

Oh, and Matthew? Thank you. For all of this.


	36. Document 8 - The Things We See

**Document 8 - The Things We See**

* * *

_Markus Kaarlonen_

I’ve never been much of a dreamer. Most of the time I wouldn’t see anything at night, and it wasn’t that I just didn’t remember anything afterwards. It’d just be black, empty nothingness. But ever since I got sick, I’ve been dreaming every night. Not just dreams, either. Sometimes they’d be nightmares. Horrible things.

And then the hallucinations arrived. They were almost more vivid than the dreams themselves, violent, even. They’d appear when I least expected it, too.

The blackouts are even worse.

I haven’t detailed the blackouts in my symptoms study. I want to, but something keeps stopping me. Well, really, every time I try and type it out, I have another blackout. And then I’m somewhere else. Sometimes on the other end of the house, sometimes all the way over at the studio. Once I woke up in the middle of Helsinki with no recollection of how I got there.

In all honesty, it’s scary. What if I end up too far away from home? Or I wake up in a particularly dangerous location? And the hallucinations leave me confused and unsure of what’s going on - a period in time where I don’t particularly remember what exactly just happened, if they’re vivid enough. 

From what the other guys have told me, the hallucinations amongst us all seem to be rather similar. Auditory and visual hallucinations are the most common, but more and more now, there’s tactile hallucinations that come and go. Things brushing up against our arms. Someone grabbing onto our shoulders or hands when there’s no one there.

A lot of the time, mine seem to follow a trend of relating to the rest of the band. They seem to say the same, too. We hear each others’ voices. See each other walking around our houses. But then it’s not us. It’s obvious it’s not. There’s too much blood for it to actually be the person we’re seeing.

We’re all aware of what Jaska saw in his hotel room that night we stayed in Haven. Jari and Olli ended up telling the rest of us because, well, when I brought up that I’d seen Jani walking around my house with wings on his back, they thought we should know that Jaska saw something similar that night in Haven.

Now we’re all scared we’ll be taking the same route as Jaska did. Are we finally going insane, after 5 months of Jaska already being there? 

He’s been seeing stuff ever since he left. It’s obvious, by the way he looks at us. He sees something that we don’t. But why him? We all saw some wild stuff while we stayed in Haven - apart from Tiia and Glen - so why was he so badly affected?

I think I’ve got the answer, thanks to Olli and Jari. He apparently went on a little stumble through some alleyways and made his way to… something that left him scared out of his mind. Panicked, breathing heavily, eyes wide. Whatever he saw must have triggered his head to deteriorate to the point that it’s at now.

* * *

**Analysis - Matthew Ayres**

Another one of Markus' studies. I have a feeling that anything written by him is going to be particularly helpful.

I knew about the hallucinations from Markus’ study on the symptoms of Asthenia, but the blackouts? That’s just something else entirely. They wouldn’t be such a surprising addition to the symptoms if Markus was actually able to document them officially, but he can’t.

The idea of blacking out inside your house and then waking up in the middle of Helsinki is more or less a terrifying one. 

Detailing the hallucinations really has given me a way of relating Jaska’s symptoms with the rest of the band. His hallucinations seem to be incredibly intense in comparison to everyone else, which is no surprise considering that I know the reason why. Emily, Olli and Jari must have seen Jaska go out and wander, but only Emily saw where exactly he had gone, which is why Jari and Olli weren’t as badly affected as Jaska.

I’d really like to see a document detailing Jaska from his own point of view. I don’t know whether he’d even be sane enough to record his own perspective on something, but maybe if I search around enough I’ll find something.


	37. Video Footage 4 - "Näen enkeleitä."

**Video Footage 4 - "Näen enkeleitä."**

* * *

“Every time I close my eyes, I see that place. I see the people there. And I see… I see the fate that we’re slowly becoming closer and closer to meeting.” Jaska speaks, holding his hands together tightly. 

He looks like a wreck. Dark wine circles surround his eyes, his hair a messy, matted chunk of strands, and his skin far paler than normal. Behind him, you can see his bedroom, with the bedcovers lying half on and half off the bed, while pieces of paper, packets from microwaveable meals and a guitar sit on the floor, abandoned.

“And I can’t say  _ anything _ about it.” He sighs. “None of the guys deserve to have all of this on their minds. Neither does Tiia. So I have to carry the burden, and only me.”

Staring directly into the camera, Jaska takes in a shaky breath. He rubs his shoulder a little, prompting something underneath to shift around a little, a gross movement that makes him visibly gag. 

“And that  _ thing _ under my skin. It  _ speaks _ to me… and I want it out. I know what it is and what it’ll do to me.” Jaska continues, changing his seating position again. “It’s what I saw in that place - wings on the people… the statues... standing in there.”

He sniffles a little and rubs his hand under his nose, pulling it away to find blood. It keeps flowing from his nostril, dripping down his lip and onto his shirt. Jaska grunts a little and stands up, cupping his hand under his nose and rushing away to find a tissue.

When he returns, the moving shape under his shirt can be seen moving around again. It’s more of an aggressive movement, and Jaska seems to flinch at its harsh jolts and twitches. Sitting down again, as the lump continues to displace itself and find new places to sit on Jaska’s back, he sighs again, almost in defeat.

“The worse my sickness gets, the closer I get to becoming like all of the statues in there. The statues that used to be people. I could see them inside. I thought I was just seeing things, because I was drunk, but I saw those people in there.” He speaks, almost in disbelief of his own words. “And I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t scared. I’m fucking terrified. But I have to protect the others - I have to keep this to myself so that they don’t have to be so scared when we finally progress to what we’ll end up becoming.”

One more sigh and a glance into the camera.

“It’s not that I…” He continues, rubbing his hands together again. “It’s not that I want to leave them completely in the dark. That’s… that’s not what I want to do at all.” Jaska bites his lip and his throat constricts. “But I know them so well, and fuck, telling them something  _ this heavy _ will break some of them completely.”

And then the tears spill. And boy, oh boy, do they spill.

“Think about Olli! It’d leave him absolutely shattered.” Jaska sobbed, eyes foggy and hands weak. “And Marko, too… he would lose all direction of himself if he knew he had such little time left.”

Jaska bites onto his fist to try and stop himself from crying more, but all it does is let more tears flow. He rocks back and forth in front of the camera like an old rocking chair. 

“I can’t do that to them.” He whispers through the tears. “They don’t deserve it.”

* * *

**Analysis - Matthew Ayres**

Jaska’s story just became so much more tragic. He kept what he saw to himself to make sure nobody else had to worry or have the issue pressing on their minds constantly. He was fully aware of what he was holding back and the possible consequences, but he was also vastly aware of the consequences that would arrive if he did tell the rest of the band what he knew.

Thing is, I’m pretty sure the things he knew were the things that drove him out of his mind. He endured all that, just so the rest of the band’s minds didn’t need to be plagued with the constant knowledge of when and why they would soon disappear from the world entirely.

My whole perspective on Jaska has just taken a complete turn. There’s almost something heroic about what he did, and why he kept what he knew to himself - why he carried that impossibly heavy burden so that nobody else had to.

The tragic, selfless hero of this story - Jaska.


	38. Journal Entry 7 - Marko

**Journal Entry 7 - Marko**

* * *

“I remember who you are.” - The first thing Jaska said to me when I woke up this morning.

And then I remembered him too.

All the things we’d done together. The shows - although they’re still patchy, still something missing. The stupid things we did when we got drunk, like when Jaska lifted a traffic sign out of the ground and tried to take it back to the tour bus. All the things that made us laugh so hard that our stomachs hurt.

But we also remember getting sick. And when Jaska’s condition rapidly deteriorated as well. The reason behind the twisted, violent scars on both of our backs, too.

At that moment, though, it didn’t matter about any of that. We just cried and laughed until we exhausted ourselves, holding onto each other so tightly that our fingers went pale and we left marks on each other where our nails dug into each other’s skin.

It’s wonderful to remember the blissful moments we had. And Emily couldn’t contain her own happiness when we told her - she’s really grown quite close to us, and us to her, over the last few weeks. Now that we know exactly what’s going on, and now that we have a further understanding of ourselves, things have gotten a lot better.

If I’m honest - and Jaska would agree with me - staying down in this basement isn’t as awful as it originally seemed, and we understand the reason why it’s essential we stay down here instead of walk around. Emily’s outlined the dangers.

She’s even gone out and taken photos so that we know what the rest of Haven looks like.

While Emily has told us a lot over the last few weeks, there’s still a few things that she hasn’t told us. Her motivations for saving us still continue to evade conversation. And why exactly she’s so afraid of us being found, or most importantly, why she’s so adamant that something bad will happen if we are found. It makes me uneasy. 

But there’s one lingering question neither Jaska nor I have dared to ask. 

Yesterday she brought in another mattress into the basement. 

We think she’s going to try and break someone else out.

* * *

**Analysis - Matthew Ayres**

It’s interesting, the effect Haven seems to have on the memories of those influenced by it. According to Marko, they’ve been staying with Emily for a ‘few weeks’ at this point, and it’s only now that Marko and Jaska have regained their memories of each other - there’s no mention of the rest of the band at all. So maybe until the rest of the band is released, those memories will lay dormant.

That’s probably why Marko says that he remembers the shows, but also says that there’s something missing - that being the memory of the rest of the band. 

Emily seems to have explained most things about Haven to both of them, giving them an understanding why they need to stay in hiding. At least they’re not going stir-crazy in there. But obviously, as Marko has said, there’s still some things Emily hasn’t said.

She’s not saying why she’s scared of being found out, which is, in all honesty, rather rational. Who knows what Haven might do to Marko and Jaska if they’re found? 

And onto Marko’s final revelation. Emily’s going to try and free another one of the band members, probably. But none of their links are broken, so will she even be able to free them at all? Or will they be able to be freed, but there’s something wrong about them, something different?


	39. Supplement 6 - Moving Forward

**Supplement 6 - Moving Forward**

* * *

Email conversation started at 2:34am, 25/08/2021 between Tiia [██████████] and Matthew [█████████]

Tiia:

Good news! Tyyne’s been able to convince the higher-ups that I’m doing better. For now, they’ve taken me off the drugs they’ve been feeding me (feels so fucking good to have a clear head again - those meds screw up my head more than they ‘fix’ it, even though there’s nothing wrong with it at all in the first place) and may consider letting me go in the next few months. 

But that also leaves a gap. I might not be able to email you as often, just to make sure I can get the best chance at getting out as soon as possible.

Tyyne’s gone and had a look inside Markus’ house for things of interest. I don’t want to imply anything, or say that you’re more of a part of this than I know, or you’ve been lying to me, or anything like that - but Markus has a photo of _you_ plastered onto the wall in there.

Matthew:

I don’t know how that’d be possible. I’ve never met Markus before in my life, or been anywhere close to where he would be. I’ve never even left the damn country before. And I sure as hell know that a Finn wouldn’t just go through all the effort, while being sick, to fly to New Zealand. It just doesn’t make sense.

Are you sure it’s me?

Tiia:

I’m pretty sure. I’ll attach a photo of it so you can confirm.

[FILE ATTACHED: photo_23]

Matthew:

Oh, shit! That’s… me? But also not me - my eyes are a different colour, and my hair’s darker. It’s definitely me, no doubt - got the scar on my chin to prove it - but it also _can’t be me_.

That’s beyond weird. Why the fuck does Markus have a photo of me in his house?


	40. Voice Log 6 - Markus, Olli & Jani

**Voice Log 6 - Markus, Olli & Jani**

* * *

Markus: Yeah… there’s a lot in here. Try not to step on anything.

Jani: How much research have you done exactly?

Olli: Too much? 

Markus: I’ve done enough to prove that what’s going on is connected to that weird town we stayed in when the tour bus broke down.

Olli: A town can’t just  _ make someone sick  _ for visiting it.

Markus: Well, no, a normal town can’t. But Haven wasn’t normal, and you know that.

Jani: He’s got a point.

Olli: Oh come on, Kapu, it was just a camera malfunction that changed your photos. And Jaska, Jari and I were just really, really drunk. 

Jani: But why, if it was a camera malfunction, did all of our photos look the way they did, across two different cameras? Even the photo I took of you with Jaska and Jari showed you with wings too.

Olli: How long has it been since you  _ actually _ saw the photos, though?

Markus: A long time. Months? I deleted them a few weeks ago without taking a final look and I burned the only physical versions ages ago.

Jani: I’ve got them on my camera at home.

Markus: I’m dead serious when I say that everything that’s going on is connected to Haven. Think about it! The timelines line up perfectly between us getting sick and that day we left Haven - it’s the only explanation.

Olli: No! There has to be another explanation.

_ [The audio seems to glitch here. Some of it’s missing, leaving a quiet spot in the middle of the recording that lasts 30 seconds. It begins back again, midway through a spoken sentence.] _

Olli: - the lights?!

Markus: It’s pitch fucking black in here!

Jani: Hang on, hang on! I’ve lost you!

Olli: Kapu, stop walking! We don’t know where the hell we’re walking!

Jani: Can you hold out a hand, Olli? I… I can’t find you!

Markus: Olli, I can’t see you either! It’s too dark!

Jani: Both of you, stop moving! Can any of you see  _ anything _ at all?

Olli: I can’t even see my own hands in front of my face.

Markus: I… I see something. 

Olli: What do you see?

Jani: Kapu, what do you see?

Markus: Oh, shit! Run, Olli! Jani, try and follow my voice!

_ [Footsteps echo in the recording. It distorts, the microphone seemingly unable to pick up some of the frequencies they create. The group breathes heavily. It’s hard to figure out who exactly took this recording as the proximity of the breaths and voices seem to all be the same. No one voice is louder than another.] _

Jani: I can’t find you!

Markus: Follow my voice and don’t fucking look back!

Olli: Where are you even going?

Markus: I don’t know, Olli! Just keep running!

Jani: I don’t know which direction your voice is coming from! It’s coming from  _ every _ direction!

Jani: Where are you?

Jani: I ca n’ t f i n d y o u !

_ [Another audio glitch, no sound for around 3 seconds.] _

Olli: What the…

Markus: We’re in… where the fuck are we? I don’t recognise this place  _ at all _ .

Olli: Where’s Jani? He’s- he’s not here!

Markus: Shit, you’re right! Where is he?

Olli: Hey, Jani? 

Markus: Jani?

* * *

**Analysis - Matthew Ayres**

This was so disorientating to read. First off, there’s missing pieces, which just make it hard to figure out what’s going on at all, but because I can’t see what’s happening, it’s even harder.

This started out so normal, so harmless. It seemed to be a recording of Markus showing Jani and Olli his research that he had hanging up over all his walls.

But then things obviously change. Everything seems to go dark, the group somehow stuck in an endless, echoing void. At some point, either Markus and Olli together or Jani alone takes a few steps away, splitting them up.

Markus seems to have seen something, which doesn’t make much sense, because Olli says earlier that he can’t even see his own hand in front of his face. But only he seems to see it - or Olli and Jani were too scared to look back. Either way, he sounds goddamn terrified.

It’s at that moment that Jani then struggles to find them, saying that Markus’ voice is echoing from every direction.

And then he’s lost. But how? This seems to me like some sort of shared hallucination, which, if I’m honest, doesn’t surprise me if so. And then, all of a sudden, Markus and Olli are in an unfamiliar location, far away from where Markus’ house must be.

And if Markus and Olli are in this new location alone, where did Jani go?


	41. Video Footage 5 - A Seamless, Constant Loop

**Video Footage 5 - A Seamless, Constant Loop**

* * *

The camera starts filming as it faces the road through the windscreen of a car. Someone picks it up and turns it to face the two people sitting in the car, one with his face blurred. The other person in the car is a young woman, with large glasses too big for her face sitting on her nose. Her blonde hair frames the rest of her features, flowing down just past her shoulders.

“So, this is a little experiment titled ‘Leaving Haven.’ We’ve never tried it before, but we’re going to see what happens when you drive out of Falcon Passage and keep going.” She speaks, turning the camera away, back towards the windscreen.

The young guy in the driver’s seat starts the car and turns the headlights on. The light provides a view ahead, and as the car starts moving, a seemingly endless road stretches out ahead.

“Em, keep an eye out for anything that we might be able to use as a landmark or something.” The young man remarks, pressing his foot down on the accelerator. 

At that same moment, they pass a sign that marks the turn-off to Mount Serene Hydroelectric Power Plant along Miller’s Lane. The pair note the sign and agree that it’ll be their chosen landmark to remember.

Nothing much is said over the several minutes that pass - not until the pair see a sign in the distance.

“Wait,  ███████! Stop driving.” The woman says, zooming the camera in so that the lettering on the sign is visible. “It’s the power plant sign.”

A sigh comes from the driver. “It can’t be. We’ve driven in a straight line for the last 20 minutes.”

The passenger gets out of the car with the camera, turning to look back at the road they had just driven down. Lights sparkle not too far away, where Haven sits.

“How is that even possible?” She questions, pointing back at Haven. “It’s right there! We’re only, maybe, 200 metres out from Haven!”

The driver gets out of the car to have a look. “Don’t be ridiculous, Em. There’s no way.”

He turns to look at the town in the distance and lets out a quiet ‘oh’.

The town is indeed in the distance.

They both get back into the car. The driver really speeds up now, making the car lurch forwards. Now, the gap between when they leave and when they see the road sign again is much shorter. Panning backwards, the camera is again pointed to Haven, a short distance away.

“It’s a seamless, constant loop! We’ll just keep going no matter what.” The driver says, stopping the car.

The woman suggests going through one last time to see what happens. Agreeing, the driver starts up the car again and drives ahead for another few minutes until the sign appears yet again. He pulls over beside the sign and the pair get out of the car.

“You’re right, it is a seamless, constant loop.” The passenger speaks.

* * *

**Analysis - Matthew Ayres**

So this is what happens when a resident of Haven, still linked to the town, tries to leave. The road just keeps repeating itself, in what the speakers (more on them later) call a ‘seamless, constant loop’. From what I can see, that’s exactly what it is. There doesn’t seem to be a particular time when the loop repeats, but there seems to be a general sort of time when it does repeat.

I’m pretty sure that the two people in this video are indeed Cameron and Emily, testing out Haven’s limits for when they try to leave themselves. It’s curious that Cameron’s face is blurred - why, first off - considering Emily’s face is unblurred, because we’re bound to see his face soon, somehow. 

Really, I’ve been questioning why anything at all is redacted on this hard drive. It’s always essential information, which is the one thing that’s stopping me from buying a ticket to Atlanta and driving into Tennessee looking for Haven right now.

It’s because I’m still unsure.

No confirmation means that it doesn’t matter whether I’m close, if I’m wrong and go off a theory that’s incorrect, how wrong can things go? So, so wrong.


	42. Journal Entry 8 - Marko

**Journal Entry 8 - Marko**

* * *

Emily’s gone. And so is Jani, who she brought home two nights ago. And there’s so much more that’s wrong.

Around 2 in the morning, Emily helped Jani down into the basement. He could barely walk and looked rather sick, but he was okay enough to talk to us a little and introduce himself. Like us, he could only really remember his own name, but he also noted that he recognised us from somewhere.

We recognised him too.

Is Jani a part of the band?

Anyway, he took a while to fall asleep, apparently. Jaska was watching him turn and shift around all night until he dozed off, and then when the both of us woke up, Jani was gone. 

We went up the smaller staircase to the little living room that Emily stays in, but she wasn’t there. So after waiting a while, after we finally thought that maybe Emily wasn’t just out buying food or was called to an unscheduled shift, Jaska and I went up into the rest of the house for the first time ever.

The whole interior is burned to ashes. Everything that used to be there was no more, just a pile of melted plastic, wood ash or shattered glass. How the exterior of the house was left perfectly fine, I have no idea. The walls are seared black, the floor crunching beneath our steps.

How this happened is beyond the both of us. Jani was too weak to do anything, so it can’t have been him. And I don’t want to jump to the conclusion that it was Emily - she wouldn’t have done this, no way. So it has to have been something, or someone else.

A house doesn’t just burn like it has here. Normally, it would have burnt the entire house down, not just the inside. But from what Emily has told us, Haven as a whole doesn’t seem to follow reality’s rules. 

It’s been two days since Emily’s disappearance. I don’t think she’s coming back.

We don’t really know what to do. There isn’t much food left to last us long - we’re going to have to emerge out into the light eventually and walk around Haven on our own. And that’s what scares us most.

* * *

**Analysis - Matthew Ayres**

So Jani was next to be successfully freed. But at what cost? 

Because he’s still closely linked to Haven, is there a chance that the burning of Emily’s house was a consequence of that? Then where did Emily and Jani go? Was Jani possibly returned to his position in the statue field, back to being trapped underneath his stone prison?

And then, what happened to Emily? Has she just disappeared? I don’t want to assume the worst, but this is Haven I’m talking about. I wouldn’t be surprised if something has really happened to her, knowing Haven and how it likes to punish the people who deviate from its plans.

It felt so exciting to hear that Emily was successful in helping free the band, but now knowing that it’s gone wrong, it’s so much more worrying to read the progression of these documents. What will Marko and Jaska do? It’s not like they know their way around Haven, do they?

At some point they’re going to have to emerge into the town’s eye, either to get food or investigate what’s happened to Emily. Will the residents notice that they’re here? Or will they be able to get away with passing as residents, if they end up doing so? How will this progress?


	43. [ERROR]

**[ERROR]**

* * *

She cowers in the corner of the room.

When she first was locked inside this room, the Not Me bound her hands together when I wasn’t looking. When I wasn’t aware. So now she just scrambles across the room using her legs, trying to keep her distance from the Not Me.

Her forest green eyes look up into mine. Fear is cased inside, glassy and fragile. I want to cry but I’m not the one in control - none of my actions are truly mine anymore.

My heart cries.

The worst thing that the Not Me has done to her is sew her mouth shut. The sewing needle sits on the desk, bloodied, accompanied by some white embroidery thread. More of it sits there. When she gets hungry, the Not Me is going to cut the threads open, let her eat, and then sew her lips together again.

I don’t even know her name. I think the Not Me knows, because the Not Me chose her for a reason. A reason I don’t know. 

Her glasses lie on the floor, the lenses cracked. The button-up shirt she wears is ever so slightly bloodied, but also drenched in sweat as she sits there, cradled amongst two cabinets in this storeroom.

The Not Me intends to keep her here for a while. There are some things the Not Me can’t keep quiet from me, things like that. It’s almost as if the Not Me is telling me some of the things it plans to do so it can leave me to be tortured by the things it will force me to do.

Whoever you are, please know I’m sorry.

I don’t know if you’re going to make it out of this storeroom.

What I do know about her is that the Not Me wants to punish her. For what? I’d have no idea. Just like everything else that’s going on… I don’t know anything.

She’s moving around too much.

Oh.

Oh, hell. Please, don’t make me do that. Please don’t. No. Oh, god! No, please, don’t make me do that. Stop it! Just put the fucking baton down. Please. Fuck, I’m so sorry. Oh no. No, no, no.

Her leg snaps at the immense force of the baton’s swing.

She screams.

She stops moving around.

The Not Me is satisfied.

* * *

**Analysis - Matthew Ayres**

Oh fuck! Is this Emily? I think it might be.

This is another one of those weird corrupted files. My laptop really struggled to open this one, not sure why. It didn’t seem to know how to interpret it.

And whoever is in the room with her seems to be torturing her, but not willingly. Something that they call the Not Me is in control instead, punishing her. They seem to really be reluctant, almost fighting against what the Not Me is forcing them to do.

This almost sounds like what Haven does to the residents whenever there’s a new arrival to the statue field. Is there a possibility that the entity or whatever it is that’s controlling the person in this document is actually Haven - just given the name of the Not Me by the person here?

Then who is the person whose perspective this file is following? Just a random resident? Could there be multiple residents that switch places inside that room, watching who very well may be Emily? Or could this be someone else?


	44. Journal Entry 9 - Unnamed

**Journal Entry 9 - Unnamed**

* * *

I just can’t explain it.

There’s such an immense sense of loss that sits on my shoulders. Something feels _missing_ , but as far as I know, I haven’t lost anything. 

This loss hurts, though. It’s like I’ve lost someone close, even though I know I haven’t. There’s just a gaping hole in my heart, something I can’t ignore, yet there’s no reason as to why there would be something missing in the first place.

And everything feels _wrong_. Everything I look at, there’s always something missing, but I can’t seem to put a finger on it. 

The walls in my room, they’ve always been empty. But every time I look at those empty spaces I get a feeling that something’s supposed to be there, like a picture or poster or something. And the art on my walls, they’re of people I’ve never seen before. The faces aren’t familiar to me at all - but I almost feel as if I should be familiar with them.

Every time I look at my wrist too, I feel like there should be something there as well. I can remember the sensation and pain from getting a tattoo there, but there’s nothing there and I’ve never gotten a tattoo in my life. I don’t get it.

What scares me the most, maybe, is that I keep playing tunes on my guitar that I don’t know. I don’t recognise them, I don’t remember learning them, I don’t remember hearing them before in my entire life. But I can play them, and I can play a lot of them. 

I think what scares me even more is that I don’t remember why I bought a guitar in the first place. There’s a feeling that someone persuaded me to start playing, or someone inspired me to play, but then there’s nobody I can think of that would have inspired me in the first place.

I miss someone. More than one person, maybe - but I don’t even know who. My heart aches so much and none of it makes any sense. I haven’t lost _anything_ or _anyone_ , I know that for sure. Why can’t I shake this feeling away?

* * *

**Analysis - Matthew Ayres**

This almost seems to be written by a fan of the band, now observing the things that seem to be missing to them. So somehow, their old memories that were involving the band - they still seem to linger a little, as we can see through the art that they’ve drawn and the tunes (most likely the band’s songs) that they can play on their guitar.

So there’s not so much a complete absence of the band’s existence, there’s actually more of just an absence of whatever used to be there. Like with the songs the writer can play on their guitar - they don’t remember the songs from anywhere and have no names to associate with them. Or with the drawings, how there’s clearly still evidence of the band’s faces, but there’s no names associated with them either.

Clearly there is still an absence of some things - such as the writer’s tattoo which was probably related to the band, now gone. But the feeling and ever so slightly evident memory of getting the tattoo is still there, even though the actual tattoo itself is gone.

So from this, I think I can make a bit of an estimated guess as to how the erasure of someone who has been trapped in Haven works. It’s more of the physical evidence, the things you can see and hear and experience, but the memory and feelings associated with that person seems to still linger, leaving someone who may have known them… well, lost, I guess.

Some sort of emptiness.


	45. Message Log 3 - Tiia, Glen & Miika

**Message Log 3 - Tiia, Glen & Miika**

* * *

Tiia: Hey, have you heard from the guys at all today? None of them are answering their phones, are you aware if they’re out doing something at the moment? 

Tiia: They had a studio session sorted for today and I was going to edit the photos that we took last night, but they haven’t turned up.

Glen: I’m not sure who you’re talking about. 

Tiia: Who else do I refer to as ‘the guys’?

Glen: I still don’t know who you’re talking about. 

Tiia: Haha very funny.

Tiia: No, lol, do you have any idea where they are?

Glen: Seriously, I have no idea who the hell you’re talking about.

Tiia: Ahaha please stop fucking with me, Glen.

Tiia: I’m genuinely kind of concerned.

Glen: I’m not fucking with you, who on earth are you talking about?

Tiia: You know, the band? Marko and the rest of the guys?

Glen: Who’s Marko?

Tiia: Oh, fuck off, Glen.

Tiia: The joke isn’t funny.

* * *

Tiia: You heard from the guys at any point today? 

Miika: The guys?

Tiia: Yeah, you know, the ones who you directed 5 music videos for. lol

Tiia: Don’t tell me you’re in on the joke too.

Miika: I’ve gotta be honest, I have no idea what you’re talking about.

Miika: What joke?

Tiia: Oh, I don’t know, you tell me!

Tiia: The not-actually-funny joke of you and Glen pretending to forget who Poets are?

Miika: Tiia, I’m serious, I have no idea who you’re talking about.

Tiia: Fucking hell, I may as well not ask anyone. Neither of you are of any help.

Tiia: Did the guys set you up for this? Because you can tell them it’s not funny.

Miika: Chill, chill. Look, I’m sorry, I genuinely don’t know who ‘the guys’ are.

Tiia: Oh stop it with this ‘chill, chill’ talk! I’m actually worried about them!

Tiia: Never mind. I’ll search for them myself, seeing as you’re no help.

* * *

**Analysis - Matthew Ayres**

Another glimpse into the hours shortly after Tiia woke to find the band missing. From what I can see here, she texted Glen, who would probably have some sort of idea about where they were, considering they were going to be at the studio. Miika is a name I haven’t seen before, but from what Tiia says about him directing some of the music videos, he must have closely worked with the band.

What’s quite painful to read is that Tiia is taking this all as a joke, as something that had been set up to prank her or something of the sorts. It’s almost too difficult to imagine how this little moment evolves into the complicated, insane timeline that we have now. 

What I’m still so curious about is how Tiia still remembers the band. Is it because she was with them that night? Or because she’s so close to them? What caused Haven to leave her alone despite the fact that she may have seen the true nature of the town, considering how brutal and merciless it seems to be to anyone else who gets involved?

Will it even be safe to enter Haven to get the band out?


	46. Voice Log 7 - Jari

**Voice Log 7 - Jari**

* * *

J: I am utterly fascinated by the patterns in the world. My mind doesn’t want to forget it either. I can’t seem to drop it. There is just something about it, something fixating about how everything works in perfect, synchronised tandem.

J: The patterns. I can see them all now, and while patterns used to only matter to me when drumming, they’re now everywhere, and they’re inside everything and part of everyone. 

J: It started out as some sort of tic, a sense or something. Then it got to a point where I couldn’t ignore it, and I eventually decided to investigate it. First it started with simple things. 

J: A puzzle, for example. I got a timer out and started it when I poured all of the pieces onto my table. When I finished and looked at the timer, I couldn’t believe how quickly I had put it together.

J: But a few days ago... was the last straw in a way. I was out on a run, just trying to find some quiet, and a group of birds followed me around. They were chirping constantly throughout the whole run and I could hear something that left me completely and utterly astounded.

J: I could hear the patterns in them too! It’s not just chirps and squawks, it’s an intricate language like our own language. The sounds they were making could be constructed into meanings and conversations which I could never hear before.

J: In between that, there’s been even more. Patterns now seem to be the building blocks of everything. I’m starting to understand new things I never understood before. Things that I shouldn’t know either, if I hadn’t studied them before.

J: Now, things have progressed far beyond what they were previously. I… I can hear the world’s processes, churning and moving ever forward. Somehow I seem to be able to see the electrical impulses firing in not only my own but other people’s brains too. Everything around me vibrates in a frequency I seem to be able to understand. 

J: The sound of a heartbeat is the same as the ticking of a clock. Or the beat of a drum. [laughs] Funny, huh? Because I’m a drummer. Patterns are inside everything I play, of course. But now I see the web of causality touch everything with its vicious claws and how it holds on for dear life.

J: It doesn’t scare me. And that’s what I find the scariest thing about all of this.

* * *

**Analysis - Matthew Ayres**

This is something entirely new. I think it’s the sickness messing with Jari’s head, but in all honesty, I’d love to know whether he was actually sensing and seeing these things or not. Something about it seems so unbelievably fascinating, how attentive he is to the patterns in the world. 

The other thing I noticed, something that he actually mentions, is that well, yes, he’s the drummer, and his instrument relies on patterns. Could this be why this particular state of mind was only imposed on Jari instead of someone else in the band?

I think it’s quite interesting how the sickness Haven gave to the band affects them in different ways. I haven’t seen much of Marko, really, but now we know that it made Jaska go, well, mad, Jani was experiencing the blackouts more than anyone else, Olli was really, really badly sick, it seemed to also make Markus quite paranoid, too. And now we’ve seen how it’s affected Jari.

So while the obvious symptoms, the ones that show that someone is very obviously sick, are all the same, it’s mostly (except for Olli’s case) a different state of mind that sets people apart. It completely rewires their heads, it seems, changing things up to a point where the mind that was there has nothing left of itself.

I wonder if Jari ever spoke about this to anyone else, really. This is such an intense thing to be experiencing, as we can see, and I feel as if keeping it to yourself would be quite hard. It’d feel like such a heavy burden I’m guessing.

I was taking one last read through this voice log when I noticed one final thing. And now I can’t forget about it, it’s so obvious now that I’ve found it. It gives me the chills, even - it’s eerie in a way.

Every sentence Jari speaks has an even amount of words in it. There is not one single sentence he speaks in this entire voice log that has an odd amount of words in it. Every single one. It’s almost as if it’s been perfectly measured, too - if there’s a pause, a stutter or a repeated word, it makes up that even amount of words in the end.

I don’t want to say that it freaks me the fuck out, but it really does.


	47. Document 9 - The Places I Go

**Document 9 - The Places I Go**

* * *

_ Jani Snellman _

I seem to experience the blackouts the most out of the rest of the band. I’m not even sure if they know how much it actually happens - but luckily I never go too far from home, otherwise I think I’d need a plane ticket to get back home.

Still, things could go catastrophically wrong if I haven’t got my phone on me, or if I haven’t got any money in my pockets to hitch a ride back home. Luckily nothing like that has happened - and it’s a fucking good thing we weren’t blacking out in the middle of shows. I don’t even know what we’d do there.

Mine happen so often that at this point, I can take advantage of where they take me. I use them as photography opportunities - Kapu suggested it to me after I talked about somewhere rather nice I had ended up in.

So that’s what I do now.

Now, we can kind of get a sense of when they come. Whenever I start getting a few hints that, in a few minutes, I’ll probably be in the next city over, I grab onto my camera and wait for it to happen. Unless it happens really unexpectedly, if I’m asleep or something.

Something that’s really interesting is that sometimes we experience a blackout at the same time, and all of us end up in the same place. I think Olli might have gotten the first instance of that on a voice recording some time ago.

While it’s nice I can take advantage of this strange situation, I can’t just say it doesn’t scare me. Not knowing whether I’ll wake up in a safe location, or whether I’ll be able to get home once I figure out where I am is genuinely terrifying. 

Because yeah, what if I do get stuck somewhere? What if I end up in a completely different country with nothing to help me get home? I can’t just call Tiia or something and go ‘hey, yeah, sorry, I’m stuck in Norway with no way to get home’, that’s just silly. 

I just have to hope that doesn’t happen, I guess.

* * *

**Analysis - Matthew Ayres**

Jani’s little document here has really amplified the magnitude of how serious these blackouts seemed. He’s not wrong - what if he did actually end up in a completely different country with no way to get home? And having to just hold on and believe that it won’t happen sounds gruelling. 

I am glad, however, that he found a way to take advantage of the regular occurrence. He seems to be rather passionate about photography beside his music - I haven’t really read much about him, really - but I do recall him being one of the three who took photos at Haven. 

I’m hoping there’s more on the collective blackouts, those experienced by multiple members of the band, on this hard drive. It’s such a wild idea to think that you might be all together one moment in someone’s house, and the next moment you’re standing in the middle of an ice hockey rink in Tampere or something. 

It doesn’t sound nice, but I think the documents would be quite helpful to read to gain a bit of perspective.


	48. Video Footage 6 - A Vicious Creature

**Video Footage 6 - A Vicious Creature**

* * *

Jaska sits in front of the camera yet again. He looks much more tired, baggy eyes bloodshot and umber hair reminiscent of a bird’s nest. His eyes seem to shift and shake a little. Behind him is his bedroom, much messier than before. Papers cover the floor, not a single shed of carpet exposed.

“I… fuck, I just want to stop seeing them. I can’t even look at the photos that I cherish so much without seeing something I don’t want to.” He runs a hand through his hair hastily, clearly frustrated. 

Jaska looks down at his hands resting on his knees for the next few seconds.

“It leaves me frozen in fear. I can’t do anything, I can’t look away. And now whenever I look at the guys, all I see are those fucking wings!” He hissed angrily before gesturing around at nothing. “The band now thinks I’m mad! I’ve heard what they say about me, I’ve listened to them speak every little word that screams ‘I think Jaska’s crazy’ and all I can do is fucking bite my tongue and stop myself from lashing out!”

He picks up his mug, handling it a little and passing it from hand to hand before throwing it at the wall beside him. It shatters, obviously, and creates a dent in the wall. Jaska then proceeds to stand up, stagger over to the wall, and make that dent into a hole with his fist.

Once the damage has been done, he falls back to his seat, looking defeated. 

“I’m just so angry, so frustrated, so hot-headed all the time now. I don’t even feel like myself, there’s just something else influencing me now. I really have to stop myself from lashing out, either with my words or my hands.”

Biting his lip, his eyes start flushing with tears again.

“I don’t want to hurt anyone because I fear that if I let myself go, I’ll end up killing someone.” A swallow is used in an attempt to hold back his emotions. 

It fails.

Again, he loses his grip on himself. Tears welled and streamed down his cheeks, such a calm contrast to the tangled mess that was his own head. In a furious, brisk action, he continued to run his hands through his messy hair accompanied by an exasperated groan, gripping onto bunches of hair and pulling on them.

“Fuck!” Jaska shouts, ramming a fist against the side of his head repeatedly. “This is not me! It can’t be, everyone knows I wouldn’t lay a goddamn finger on anyone! I can’t seem to control myself, and I’m fucking scared of that, and I’m supposed to be the strong, responsible one here, not the one who is slowly losing his mind, and… fuck!”

He seems to cool down a little bit, sitting quietly in frame.

“You know,” he continues, “the only reason I made this video is because I…”

He seems to stumble on his next words. They don’t come out smoothly, almost as if they were a pill too big to swallow. There’s a quiet sigh before he tries again.

“I… I, fuck, today I overheard Marko talking shit about me, I lost control of my temper and punched him. Hard. He fell down and Jani shoved me out of the studio and Olli refuses to speak to me now and Jari just leaves me on seen whenever I text him.” Jaska struggles to let the words flow. “And Markus has just left me an angry text telling me not to come back to any more studio sessions, because Tiia took Marko to hospital and they found that I had broken his jaw.”

Jaska looks directly into the camera again. His eyes almost seem to scream for help, yet he doesn’t speak it.

“I’m fucking horrified at myself.”

* * *

**Analysis - Matthew Ayres**

These are really hard to get through. There’s such an internal struggle here, between Jaska and his own mind. The anger is something that hasn’t been mentioned before, but that’s probably because Jaska kept everything to himself. It’s probably one of the things that contributed to the talking behind his back and saying that he was crazy.

And yeah, about that. What the fuck is up with that? The band is so close to each other yet the moment someone starts acting weird, they start talking about them behind their back? That just doesn’t seem right at all. They seem too tightly knit to ever do something like that. Could that be something that the sickness brought along with it?

I just hate how this is all happening and I can’t do anything about it. I feel particularly bad for Jaska - so many documents I’ve read have insisted the ‘he was insane’ image, yet all of these video logs really say that it was completely different. He’s emotional, he’s struggling, and he’s trapped in something he doesn’t deserve to be stuck in the middle of.

Finding more of these video logs is going to be a wild ride indeed.


	49. Journal Entry 10 - Marko

**Journal Entry 10 - Marko**

* * *

We were scared shitless while we did it, but we went out and bought some food. Nobody took a second look at us, which is an absolute relief.

Haven is wild. I can’t even begin to explain it. There’s something about it, and something about the people. It looks like the place is both trapped in the 1900s and completely modernised at the same time. It’s really freaky. 

And don’t even get me started on the people. They all look really similar to one another, as if they were siblings or cousins or something along those lines. All of them have either this dirty blonde hair, or some sort of light brown. There’s no inbetween, and no outliers. They’re all really… generic. 

While there’s still variation between all of them, there’s still always a few features that hold up amongst all of them - the most obvious thing being their height.

Yeah, I know. It sounds stupid, but they’re all a small fraction shorter than Jaska. It makes us look really, really obvious, particularly Jaska because he’s tall. But none of them are shorter than me, and none of them are taller than Jaska. 

When we were out buying some food, we noticed something else which was even weirder, and it still gives me the shivers thinking about it. Not only do they look similar to each other and are all just about the same height, they ALL BLINK IN TIME WITH EACH OTHER.

We watched the cashier that was serving us and the cashier behind them, and for the three minutes we were standing there, every blink happened at exactly the same time. 

Thank fuck they don’t walk in time with each other.

This place is like a goddamn hive mind, I swear to god. Everyone is just far too closely connected. Look, Emily said Haven was weird, I didn’t think she meant this. This is so much worse. We could absolutely be caught out just because our accents are different, or we blink out of time, or because we’re a different height to everyone else.

Jaska wanted to go back to the basement after we bought the food but I saw Jani up ahead and we both agreed we needed to talk to him. He looked fine until we got closer and saw that things looked… off. The Jani in front of us wasn’t the Jani we have vague memories of.

Not only did he not seem to respond to us, the way he stood was weird. His posture was always good but here, he was almost standing up too straight. I didn’t notice either that the rest of the residents seemed to have this odd stiff way of walking and standing - Jaska pointed that out to me as we re-entered the basement.

Jaska noticed a few more things than I did. He pointed out that everyone we passed, including the cashiers, all have green eyes. It wouldn’t be so weird if it was any other colour, but green is the rarest eye colour, right? Surely 1,000 people can’t all have green eyes.

But I think they do.

The thing I hate thinking about the most? Jani’s eyes, which were always this striking, icy blue, are ever so slightly green. It could have been the light, but it just didn’t look right. Something’s off about him and I really don’t like what all this might be suggesting.

* * *

**Analysis - Matthew Ayres**

I’m really glad Marko and Jaska are okay. And holy shit, I thought Jani had been returned to the statue field, but no! He’s functioning within the town as if he was always there and always a resident.

And from what we can see, well, I think he’s slowly becoming like the rest of the residents. Slowly, but surely.

Could it be, then, a possibility that others like Emily and Cameron tried to break people out of the statues and it went wrong in the same way it has here? Could that mean that anyone who is now considered a resident used to be a person who visited the town and got sick?

I feel like we’ll have to see more to jump to that conclusion.

It’s pretty obvious what I’m going to say about the observations Marko and Jaska made. Fucking. Awful. I hate them all. Freaks me the fuck out.

The hive mind idea that Mark has may not be far from the truth either. Haven itself is the hive mind and all of the residents are under its control. Yet it also doesn’t seem particularly obvious - like Marko said, it’s the subtle things that show how interconnected everyone is, like the blinking.

I’d say I want to see more but I’m also scared that something will happen to the pair and I’ll just have to watch it happen, unable to do anything to stop it. Please Marko, please Jaska, stay safe.


	50. Supplement 7 - Almost, Maybe

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> heya, it's me again! today (the 9th of november wow) we're celebrating the 2 month anniversary i guess of morpho catalyst! i've written a total of 27 chapters this month (holy shit that's a lot) and hit 30,000 words about a week ago! here's a very exciting chapter i've been sitting on my hands to publish for a while now, but i'm sentimental so i wanted it to be published today!

**Supplement 7 - Almost, Maybe**

* * *

Email conversation started at 2:34am, 25/08/2021 between Tiia [██████████] and Matthew [█████████]

Tiia:  
Matthew! They’ve let me out, finally. While I’m desperate to book a flight to Nashville so I can go and find the guys, I’ve realised today that I need a bit of time to readjust. Being in the mental health ward for almost a year really has taken a toll on me in terms of whether I know how to function normally as a human being. So, if it’s okay with you, I might take a few days to settle back into, well, being normal.

One problem is that the police (along with Tyyne, but she’s on our side) are still monitoring me and they might not let me leave the country at all. Tyyne might try to pull some strings behind the scenes, but there’s a chance we might still have to wait.

Got a question pertaining to that actually. It’s one I don’t really want the answer to, but I’ll ask it because I’m worried. Are Jaska and Marko still okay? 

Matthew:

That’s perfectly okay. As for Marko and Jaska, I think they’re quite alright. Well, they’re (as far as I know) not in any pressing danger at the moment, so at the moment I don’t think there’s much of a rush to push you too far out of your comfort zone by taking that leap. 

There is, however, a small issue. Emily’s gone missing - she disappeared after she rescued Jani. At first I didn’t think it was possible to free him, and I felt like something would go wrong, and my theory was unfortunately right. Jani disappeared alongside her, but Marko and Jaska ran into him while exploring Haven.

Emily, from what I can tell, may not be in a good situation at all. She’s the one who’s in direct danger, and I’m genuinely quite concerned about her.

As for Jani, all I can say is that something isn’t right. He’s ever so slightly _off_ in some way.

Hopefully Tyyne’s able to pull those strings in time for us to go - there might be a chance something pops up and we have to rush over there in an attempt to possibly save someone’s life. And Jani’s situation is concerning, too. We’ll see what we can manage.

Tiia:

I guess we’ve gotta hold on and believe, then. And hope that Emily’s okay. 

Tyyne told me yesterday that if we’re going to go, she’s coming too. I admire her courage, but I don’t want anything to happen to her just because she wanted to come, so I’m hesitant about that. I’ll ask her if she’s sure, and outline the possible consequences, but at this point she’s coming too. She’s hoping it might also mean the police are less hesitant about letting me leave the country.

I’ll book my flights for next week on Saturday. Does that sound okay? Do you think anything will happen before then?

Matthew:

Well, I can’t say for sure. But I guess that sounds good.

Tiia:  
You sound unsure. About everything, really. 

Matthew:

I think it’s just the worry of how quickly things might change. We’ll be alright, yeah? I’ll let you know if anything changes. Book those flights for next week on Saturday. I’ll be ready.

Tiia: 

Oh, Matthew, just before you go, I have something else to say. 

Tyyne and I went looking to see if Markus had anything else on you (or whoever this dude who looks like you is) and there’s so much more we missed. A lot of it was buried under other pages, but there’s a lot on you, and possibly some stuff on Emily as well.

He took observations of the town while he was out on that photography trip. Outlining the town, mostly, and how people seemed to all look the same and the sort. But he also took notes on two people who didn’t follow that trend - a girl who walked out of the bar that night, and the guy who uh, looks like you.

Apparently they functioned completely differently to the rest of the residents. Their movements were more human, more flowing, that kind of stuff. They were a lot more aware of what was going on overall, it looked like.

Matthew:

Then that’s Emily and Cameron (well, that’s not his actual name I don’t think, but his name is redacted and his face is blurred in every document so I’d have no idea what he looks like, I just gave him that name cause it popped into my head randomly) who are in pretty much every document concerning Haven. Emily must work at the Middle Ocean then, the bar.

Tiia: 

Hang on. I don’t like the thought I’ve just gotten.

Are you absolutely sure Cameron’s name has been redacted everywhere?

Matthew:

Well, yeah. I’ve been wondering about who he actually is for ages. He left Haven to try and save the guys after Emily noted that Jaska had wandered into the statue field. Not sure what happened to him but I wouldn’t say that he’s still alive, because I’m not so sure that he is.

Tiia:

Matthew, that _is_ his actual name. Cameron worked at the motel. Markus took note of his nametag and his appearance, because it differed to the rest of the people in Haven, as did Emily’s appearance. Everyone in Haven seemed pretty generic and perfect as I remember, but Cameron was missing his left arm from just below the elbow down, and Emily wore glasses, unlike anyone else in the town.

Matthew:

God, Tiia, are you absolutely sure about that? Cameron’s appearance, I mean. I need a definite fucking answer right now. Is there any confirmation to that observation, like another photo or something?

Tiia:

I… I think so. Give me a second to find any. Try not to worry about whatever is freaking you out - I’m sure it’s just a coincidence, whatever it is.

[FILE ATTACHED: photo_162]

Markus took another photo of him. You can see the wings here, too.

Matthew:  
Shit, Tiia. Fuck, fuck, fuck. I don’t even know what this means but I fucking hate all of it. You say it’s okay and not to worry but this is just too fucking much. This has gotten way out of hand.

Tiia, you don’t fucking get it, that’s me! I don’t have my left arm from my elbow down, I was born without it. And he still has the fucking scar on his chin, Tiia, oh god. How? It’s me, but it can’t be! How has this been RIGHT UNDER MY GODDAMN NOSE THE WHOLE TIME?

* * *

**An eighth note from the Editors -**

**_This is a bit of a problem, wouldn’t you agree?_ **

**_We’d say this discovery is… a little unfortunate for us. But there’s no need to worry._ **

**_We can pull all the strings we like, and you will just have to sit and watch as Tiia, Emily and Matthew... or should we say Cameron's... worlds come crashing down._ **

**_All we need to do is flip a switch._ **

**_Don’t tempt us._ **


	51. [ERROR]

**[ERROR]**

* * *

The Not Me has just fed her. 

Now it wants me to close her mouth back up again. I don’t really know why, either. She’s too fucking scared to scream for help - hell, she won’t even dare make a whimper around me/the Not Me most of the time - but that’s understandable. 

I step back. For a second, I’m in control, and I want to help her so badly. But by the time I kneel down, looking her directly in the eyes, the Not Me takes back control. 

She bravely speaks some words. 

“You’re a fucking coward, Haven. Whatever you are. Especially now that you’re hiding behind the face of someone else.” She spits in my/the Not Me’s face.

The Not Me stands up and moves towards the needle and thread to sew her mouth closed again. Her initial reaction is to scramble backwards again, but her broken leg prevents her from doing so. 

A command starts echoing around in my/the Not Me’s head.

Pick up the needle. Pick up the needle. _Pick up the needle._ **Pick up the needle.** **_Pick up the needle._**

The sentence screams its meaning to me until it no longer has a meaning - yet I still can’t resist. The Not Me says that if I resist, it will do worse things to the young woman curled up in front of me/the Not Me, and I desperately don’t want that to happen.

She knows what’s coming when my/the Not Me’s shaking hand, quivering from the internal conflict happening in my/the Not Me’s head as I/it threads the needle and she starts to whimper as it approaches her. 

The Not Me’s hands push her back against the wall and one grabs her jaw to stop her from moving around. Black thread flowing from behind, the needle nears her bottom lip where the first entry hole is. Following the remnants of the last time her mouth was closed up like this, the thread is pulled through the first few centimetres of her lip.

There’s a resistance on the thread as it is soaked with new, fresh blood. She squirms, but the iron grip that the Not Me has on her jaw prevents her from moving away. The more stitches are made, the more I am shoved back into my own prison, inside my own mind, by the Not Me. By the time it is finished I can’t see through my/the Not Me’s eyes anymore.

Things are just… dark.

The Not Me is fully in control now.

It’d almost be better this way if it weren’t for the worry that the Not Me could hurt Marko and Jaska while I’m trapped and blind like this. To be honest I can’t believe they’re actually here, in Haven. Alive and awake, too. How they were freed, I have no idea - but maybe… just maybe… it has a link to the broken, damaged young woman in front of the Not Me.

I’m slowly regaining all my old memories. They’re still slightly weird, though - stuff is missing, and all of them are out of order. I don’t know what’s recent and what happened 20 years ago. 

Haven’s fucking strange, too. I mean, yeah, no shit, of course it is, but I never realised how fucked up this place was when I visited about a year and a half ago I think. It’s almost as if Haven looked normal to me back then, but surely that’s not even possible. Surely this hellhole has been a hellhole since it was established.

If it even was established in the first place.

Living here amongst the rest of the residents has given me a lot of time to question this place. Its origins, how it stays so hidden, all that. I mean, this place has its own fucking power plant to supply power to the whole town. 

Another thing I’ve noticed is that this woman that the Not Me is keeping in the storeroom is different to the others here. Everyone else is perfect, and everyone else looks the same, but not her. She isn’t a part of the hive mind that is Haven, and she’s constantly in control… which must be why the Not Me is punishing her.

A final thing, because it’s something I can’t seem to forget.

I’m different. Changing. When I look in the mirror, my/the Not Me’s reflection looks… off. I look ever so slightly _wrong_ , in a way. The facial features that make me, well, _me_ , are dampened. Less pronounced. All the unique things that make me look different to everyone else here have been dialled down. My hair’s tidier, too. I almost look more generic and less like _me_.

And my eyes, god, how could I not include that? They’re _green_. Or slowly getting greener, at least. They aren’t right. My eyes are blue. Always have been. Why the fuck are they green?

I don’t know if I’m even _me_ anymore. Things about me keep changing, changing to become more and more similar to the other people here. I don’t want to lose myself, I can’t. For my own sake, and for Marko and Jaska’s sake, and fuck, even the woman in the storeroom’s sake, and I don’t even know her name.

But I don’t know how much longer I can resist the immensely strong pull to follow the commands that the Not Me gives me. It’s everywhere. 

... _i_ _n every movement, every sound, every light, every word, every ripple, every whisper, every sparkle, every step, every motion, every thought, every mind, every time, every turn of the page, every horrified scream, every bubble that surfaces in the ocean, every wave, every gust of wind, every breath, every heartbeat, every blink, every twitch, every turn, every creature, every day, every being, every town, every one._

* * *

**Analysis - Matthew Ayres**

I have no doubts now that this is Jani. His mention of Jaska and Marko confirms it. While there isn’t much to analyse about the first half of this, before Jani is pushed to the back of his mind and left to do some monologuing of sorts. Just sharing his thoughts, most likely.

As Jani’s been explaining, his appearance is changing, like Marko and Jaska noticed when they walked into him before. Jani’s been noticing more changes over time, and changes that Marko and Jaska didn’t seem to notice. How quickly are these changes happening? Are they just gradual enough that you don’t see what’s wrong until everything has completely and entirely changed? 

We’ll have to see.

And the reappearance of the sentences painted inside Eddie McClay’s house was unexpected. This sentence, entirely of repetition, seems to be somewhat related directly to Haven. Could this be something that all the people who are controlled by Haven hear/think?

The Not Me, which I’m pretty sure is just Jani’s name for Haven itself, seems to be influencing Jani more as time goes on. By the way this is written, Jani and Haven seem to be slowly but surely melding into one single mind. Jani, instead of distinguishing whether he is in control or not like the previous document like this, is starting to write both. “My/the Not Me’s” is the most common example of this.

He’s describing himself as both… people. Entities? If that’s the right word. I don’t know shit about what Haven actually is so I’ll just go with that. He’s narrating his actions and saying that both he and Haven are both making that movement - not himself or Haven individually.

Sometime soon, we might lose Jani to Haven’s grip. 

I think we need to start setting off for Haven faster than we originally wanted.


	52. Voice Log 8 - Marko

**Voice Log 8 - Marko**

* * *

M: I’m really worried about Olli. He’s… he’s not doing good. Now, he’s permanently staying at my place because we don’t want to move him around too much. It’s.. it’s for the best, I think. He thinks so too. Especially because he’s now experiencing other more intense symptoms, it’s best if he doesn’t move. It’s a good thing he isn’t getting those blackouts like we are.

M: Those more intense symptoms being vivid, almost completely real visual hallucinations. We’re all getting them really, but his in particular are so much wilder and so much more real. He’ll take a step and all of a sudden he’s looking out the edge of a cliff. He’s not actually there - he’s still standing, wide-eyed and terrified in the living room - but according to him it is very, very real.

M: He can feel the cold air on his face, or maybe there’s a breeze that might be there and he can feel that too. And believe me when I say that not all of the places he goes are nice. Some are… just awful. Terrifying, even. I only know that this happens because of the frightened little voice he produces during the experience as a call for help.

M: He tells me about the places he goes, normally. But sometimes he doesn’t. Sometimes I literally have to sit down and properly console him and tell him it’s okay afterwards as he sits there in tears, shaking so uncontrollably that even if I hold onto him he still moves. 

M: I really wish he didn’t have to see whatever he sees. He doesn’t do well seeing blood and the like, and if I was to take a guess at what he’s seeing, the stuff he doesn’t tell me about, it probably involves something like that. Which is awful, considering the fact that yeah, he doesn’t do well seeing that kind of stuff.

M: The other thing is that I’m experiencing stuff too, and my worry is that something with Olli will happen while something’s happening with me, and I won’t be able to help him. I can’t just leave him to sit there, terrified - I could never. Especially now that he’s sick.

M: He’s seeing things, I’m hearing things. Laughter, screams, gunshots, all that. Except they’re really, really loud. Originally they weren’t much but now they’re a lot louder. Loud as in, I end up on the floor grabbing at my ears to try and block it all out. It’s… a lot, but not as bad as what Olli’s dealing with.

M: I’m fine, really. Don’t worry about me.

* * *

**Analysis - Matthew Ayres**

This voice log has filled in the gaps in terms of what each of the guys were experiencing most vividly. We see Jaska’s eventual insanity of course, along with Jari’s overwhelming obsession with patterns, Jani’s blackouts too. I’m guessing Markus might have had some sort of intense paranoia, but I’d need more confirmation.

So the visual hallucinations. There’s a lot of empty space here, a hell of a lot of space for interpretation. But at least Marko gives us some sort of idea, describing them. The more terrifying ones that Olli experiences, the ones that he doesn’t tell Marko about, are probably what Marko thinks they are.

Knowing Haven it’s probably something gory, something horrifying, anything of the like. I really feel bad for Olli also knowing from Marko that he doesn’t deal with that stuff well.

Marko’s really downplaying his own experiences here. He’s insisting he’s fine, that he’s okay, and the things he’s hearing don’t bother him much. If I’m honest I both don’t believe him and want somebody else’s perspective to actually see what’s going on here.


	53. Document 10 - Foxes

**Document 10 - Foxes**

* * *

There was a fox in my backyard today.

For a second there was no fox after I saw it there.

About an hour later it was back in my backyard.

You see, I ██████ this fox. Right where it used to stand.

I don’t know how. It just happened somehow.

One second I was in the living room watching it, 

...and the next second, 

there was blood covering my hands.

I carried this fox inside and laid it on the dining table.

I took it apart,

and put it back together again.

It sneezed.

It then walked itself out of the living room and into the backyard again.

The fox left soon after I left for band rehearsals.

Markus saw the leftover blood under my nails.

He begged me to tell him what happened.

He was worried about me.

I think.

* * *

**Analysis - Matthew Ayres**

WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK IS THIS?

UHHHHHHHHH

FUCK THAT, I’M NOT ANALYSING THIS SHIT

NO THANKS I’M OKAY

WHICHEVER ONE OF YOU WROTE THIS IS ONE CRAZY BASTARD


	54. Video Footage 7 - The Art of Betrayal

**Video Footage 7 - The Art of Betrayal**

* * *

Jaska’s not in his bedroom anymore. This time, he sits somewhere darker, where it’s only light enough to see his slightly shadowed face and only a mere metre behind him. That tiny distance doesn’t show much - only what looks like printed photographs, a hard, dusty concrete floor and a Polaroid camera. 

Despite the lack of light, it’s very easy to see Jaska’s poor condition in many, many ways. He’s unkempt in every single way, from his long, uncut hair, and his glassy eyes which are awfully bloodshot, to the slightly torn, stained t-shirt he wears. With a sigh, he starts talking again.

“I can’t even trust my best friends anymore. How fucked up is that? Like, shit, Markus… Markus went to such fucking ridiculous lengths just to prove a point.” Jaska sighs with contempt, loosely letting his hand hang over his knee. “He used the fact that he knows my phone password against me. Then used that to get my laptop’s password and decided that he’d steal my laptop during a studio session so he could have a look through it.”

Jaska’s anger seems to radiate from him, a powerful force. As he shakes his head in disappointment, he spits something out behind him, leaving a red mark on the concrete behind him. When he opens his mouth slightly, it shows he’s bleeding. Where it’s all coming from can’t really be distinguished, but there’s a lot of it.

“He then decides that he’s going to gather all sorts of evidence against me. Like the photos, the ones I scratched out? He took the digital scans of those, along with so much more. He took the other video logs I’ve made and showed them to the others.” He hisses. “Markus… h-he took all of my shit so he could prove that _I_ was the crazy one!”

Blood drips over his lip.

Jaska continues, breathing heavily and shifting in place. “I mean, fuck, the only reason I know about all this is because Jari’s still on my side. Everyone else, _including Tiia_ , has fallen to his paranoid, manipulative actions. He’s managed to convince everyone else that I’m mad, when _he_ is the one who’s out of his fucking mind!”

The crimson, sticky liquid starts coating his teeth. Some of it drops onto his khaki t-shirt, adding a dark stain to the already numerous stains on there already. With the dim light illuminating Jaska’s face and the blood filling his mouth, his appearance makes him look absolutely crazed, out of his mind - exactly the opposite of what he’s insisting he is.

“And just because _he_ is the one who everyone knows as stable, sane and very intelligent, he’s trusted more than me! I wouldn’t have much of a problem with that if it weren’t for the fact that literally nobody has asked him where he got all his so-called ‘evidence’ from! _All of them_ have just accepted his twisted truth as something convincingly true!”

More sanguine blood runs from his mouth and covers his chin. He still hasn’t really seemed to notice - or he just doesn’t care.

“And god, even Tiia’s been manipulated beyond her own understanding. She has no fucking idea what’s going on with us - Markus forced us all to lie to her, to tell her we’d been to a doctor - and so much more. She thinks we are still all okay with each other, minus that… thing I did to Marko and his jaw a few weeks ago. She has no goddamn idea, and that fucking scares me shitless. If something really bad happens to us, she’s not going to have any damn clue.” 

Jaska’s gaze starts drifting, moving erratically. His mouth moves, but no sound is produced. Something that he whispers to himself makes him laugh a little, a childish laugh, not something that someone would do in a situation like this.

Looking away from the camera, he says his final few sentences. “Jari says that Markus tried to suggest to Tiia that taking me to a psych ward would be a good idea but she outright refused. Thank fuck. If they'd actually follow through with that… well, like I said in past videos… my temper is becoming a hell of a lot more easier to trigger. And we wouldn’t want someone else to get hurt, would we?”

Jaska smiles a little, his teeth ever so slightly red from the fluid continuing to drip down his chin and onto his shirt. It’s not the smile of someone whose head is in the right place. And definitely not the smile of someone who’s sane at all. In fact, it almost looks forced, his jaw clenching as if it was forced, as if he was being threatened into smiling in the way that he was.

For a second, the light moves, brightening up his eyes and forehead, and even though it moves away barely a second later, it reveals that his normally arctic blue eyes are ever so slightly green.

But only for a second.

* * *

**Analysis - Matthew Ayres**

This is actually the last of Jaska’s video logs.

What Markus had done must have pushed him over that fine line between sanity and insanity. He was so close for so long, and he couldn’t see himself slowly crossing over that line. But then… these also show that everyone, including _me_ , was wrong about him. He was painted as a crazed guy since the beginning, but I’ve slowly realised that isn’t really the truth.

All of what I’ve been looking at has been Markus’ manipulation, his paranoia - what we can see in many other documents, and hell, even inside his own house, thousands of his own documents. There’s no doubt he’s a smart guy, but that’s what really messed with his head. His own intelligent mind was against him, just like everyone else here for all sorts of other reasons.

And because of that, the group was torn apart. I couldn’t see it up until I saw these logs but there’s so much else that wasn’t documented - for fair reason, of course - which creates so many more gaps. Most of these documents are from early on, or midway through the progression of their sickness, and therefore don’t show those final few weeks.

They did indeed lie to Tiia, and now we know why. Not the full extent of it, though - who knows what they’ve told her that isn’t true - but the main parts. It was Markus’ paranoia, his irrational actions pushing their closest form of help and safety away.

Hang on. That’s why they did it.

It’s well known at this point that they probably weren’t completely aware of what they were doing. It was more of a forced action by Haven itself, maybe, and Haven recognised that Tiia was becoming too much of a barrier for the sickness to keep developing. With her still present, there was still a rational mind at work recognising that something wasn’t right, which possibly could have saved them… if not entirely but partly.

And that’s why they lied to her. That’s why they pushed her away and faked everything around her… to keep her oblivious.

Oh, god…

Fuck, even Markus trying to force Jaska into a psych ward. That’s literally incomprehensible in every shape and form. My friends would never, _never_ , do that behind my back. And the idea of these tightly knit, fierce and loyal friends turning on each other and thinking of some shit like _this_ is just absolutely… like, I don’t even have a word for it. 

Foreshadowing, much, considering that’s the same place Tiia - THE ONLY FUCKING SANE MIND IN THIS SHITSHOW OF A SITUATION - was sent only months later.

Another little thing I noticed. Jaska mentions scratched out photographs - are these the same photographs I analysed at the very, very beginning of all of this? Those were his? Far out. And clearly there were more, too. Either not put on here, or wiped out of existence, or maybe the only copies are now in Markus’ possession.

Well, then… onto Jaska’s behaviour. I mean, he’s saying he’s not insane, and clearly he _wasn’t_ , to a certain degree, but the blood and his whole disregard of its presence is a little indicative that he’s not really right. The aggression is still there, from when he first started having a much more intense temper. And his final words reference the violence, again, which is a particular trend with him. The further he falls down into his mental void, the more the violence seems to become forefront in his thoughts.

The final smile was… unsettling. Actually, no, it was fucking awful and I never want to see someone smile like that ever again. It was absolutely forced. That was _not_ him smiling. That was Haven, through and through. The quick flicker of green I saw in his eyes directly proves that. He’s losing it, but the Jaska that looks like he’s losing his mind isn’t _actually_ losing his mind.

No - he’s losing control.

Here, it’s Jaska and Haven. One and the same, both occupying the same body. Just like Jani and Haven - Jani and Haven have just… progressed further than what we can see here with Jaska and Haven.

One and the same. Yeah. The line of difference between Haven and Jaska is being blurred here, slowly becoming harder to recognise, whereas with Jani and Haven, that line is gone, and everything in between has turned into no man’s land.

This is just too much. What am I supposed to do, just throw this onto Tiia only days before we depart to try and save these guys’ asses? Fuck no! But I can’t just _not tell her_ about all of this. 

I don’t know what I’m going to do.


	55. Journal Entry 11 - Jaska

**Journal Entry 11 - Jaska**

* * *

Marko’s tired. Otherwise he’d be writing this instead of me. But there are some important things to write about, I guess. It’s been a while since his last entry.

I guess I’ll start with the good news. Marko and I are:

  1. Still alive
  2. Safe
  3. Now working at that power plant just up the mountain



It’s pretty good. Nobody takes a second glance at us, which is wonderful considering that every time someone looks at us, we both practically shit ourselves. 

Well, everyone except for Jani, who we keep seeing around the place. He lives down the road from Emily’s place (we don’t consider it ours, even if she’s dead or missing or whatever) and works in the same room as us at the power plant. 

We’ve tried to get through to him, but it only ever worked once. And… well. It was a lot. Thank fuck it was during a night shift, otherwise people would have seen us with him and how he reacted to it all. First it was just that look of recognition, you know, and then it was full blown realisation. It only lasted about three minutes, but it was long enough for us to have a bit of a reunion. 

He remembers us. He fucking remembers us, and it’s such a relief.

Bad news is that he’s slowly losing himself. Both Marko and I can see it. In fact, it’s becoming harder and harder to recognise him amongst everyone else in the power plant during our shifts. 

I won’t lie. It’s scary as hell.

For that one minute he was actually aware of what was happening, that one time we got through to him, he was too terrified to tell us anything. He kept going on about being watched, something in his head… (the Not Me, I think he was calling it - dunno what that’s about)... and a lot more that was just completely unintelligible. 

I think what really made Marko and I realise how serious this situation is was when he was actually speaking to us normally, we tried talking to him as we normally would. In Finnish, obviously.

But he doesn’t understand us anymore. He’s… forgotten. How can someone forget the most integral part of their identity? 

And worse still, he’s losing his accent. 

I don’t know how to stop this. Marko and I feel so powerless. This goddamn place is just too much, so much… stronger than us? What in the everliving fuck even is Haven? Is it even a conscious entity? I don’t have a clue. Whatever it is, it’s working against us, and soon it’s going to steal Jani away and tear him out of our arms.

Emily told us we can’t leave this hell even if we try our damndest. Does that mean we’re stuck here forever? It’ll just be me and Marko… dying here. Somewhere empty, with only a quarter of our memories. There’s so much missing. I mean, fuck, at this point I’m pretty sure I haven’t even had a childhood. I don’t remember any of it. But I can’t have forgotten, right? 

That was another thing I remember her mentioning. Haven does weird shit to people’s heads. Depending on how you’ve gotten involved in it… for example, Marko, Jani and I visited briefly and saw things in the way we shouldn't. That started screwing us up, fucking us over both internally and externally. I remember a lot of arguments. 

I also remember I broke Marko’s jaw… hahaha… yeah we both apologised for that one.

But the rest of it is gone. And even then, the memories I do have are still patchy. Parts are just entirely blurred out where, oh, I don’t know… people (?) might be. 

Surely there’s more to me than I remember. There has to be. Or maybe I’m just a desperate soul, trapped in this place with no way to ever leave.

It took us a while to figure it out, but now we know why Emily saved us. Only a few things survived the house fire - yeah, the house is still just compressed ash and even still, some smoke - but one of the things was a little tape recorder with a recording on it from someone. How did it survive? It was hidden underneath the floorboards in a tiny little box with some more photos.

It’s a recording from someone called Cameron, saying his goodbyes to Emily. No wonder she didn’t tell us - they were in a relationship, he left Haven, and never came back. The rest of the stuff inside the box prove they were together, and the recording proves why he left.

Emily must have been heartbroken.

He left for us. Me in particular, but also some other people - probably Marko and Jani. But he notes ‘seven lives on the line’ but, well… there’s only three of us here. And he’s sure that there were seven people including us three. 

So… does that mean there are other people stuck in that statue field, the Angel Garden (that’s what Cameron called the place) who I used to know? Are there more people in this band that Marko, Jani and I were in, people we don’t remember?

That doesn’t even seem like a possibility.

Surely not.

* * *

**Analysis - Matthew Ayres**

It’s good to know they’re safe… but again my worry has just increased for Jani. We’re gonna lose him if we don’t act fast enough.

The concept of watching someone you know very well slowly turn into someone completely different terrifies me. I mean, not remembering your mother tongue? Fucking hell. That’s just… I didn’t think Haven would go that far into erasing the person who used to be there. And even Jani’s accent is being lost into the abyss, along with the other things that used to make Jani different to everyone else.

Horrifying shit.

It’s made me think, though. I can’t remember if I’ve brought it up before, but I have a theory that maybe, just maybe, everyone else now living in Haven used to be someone trapped inside a statue. Like… have there been people similar to Emily, Cameron (see footnote 6) and Eddie for years prior who tried to set people free?

And when they did so, reenacting a similar situation to what had happened with Emily and Jani, the person who’s freed is eventually swallowed up by Haven and is assimilated into the rest of the populace, maybe? So what I’m kinda saying is that there might be a chance that Haven first started out as somewhere barely populated at all, or completely empty, and as people started breaking each other out, the town started growing.

Who fucking knows.

Oh, and the tape recorder. Yeah. I don’t really want to talk about this because I know it’s me, but I’ve been trying to separate Cameron from me as a person. But I think this is the voice log he left for Emily before he left (see footnote 7).

* * *

_ Footnote 6: _

> _ I haven’t been able to sleep knowing that this person I’ve been following through documents for the last few months is actually me. It doesn’t even feel real - it can’t be. My childhood absolutely took place. I remember going to certain places that are still here in Auckland when I was younger. But now with… mostly confirmation, if you will, that I’m… _
> 
> _...not going to type that out. I can’t. _
> 
> _ With confirmation about you-know-what, it’s made me think. What if… what if everything I remember before is just all an illusion? Fake things that never happened? What about the people involved in my memories who share the same memories as I do… what happens with them? Are their memories fake too, just to corroborate with mine? _
> 
> _ How is this even possible? _
> 
> _ If I really am Cameron Lancaster, then… Emily, I’m sorry I got you into such deep shit. It really is all my fault. _
> 
> _ Hang on… since when did I know Cameron’s last name? It hasn’t been listed in a document before, has it?  _

_ \- Cameron Lancaster/Matthew Ayres _

* * *

_ Footnote 7: See ‘Voice Log 3: Cameron’ _

* * *

**A ninth note from the Editors -**

**_He shouldn’t be remembering himself._ **

**_How? How is he doing that? Stop him!_ **

**_Stop him before this gets out of hand!_ **


	56. [ERROR]

**[ERROR]  
**

* * *

Soon the time will come, the Not Me says.

The Not Me is anticipating something big. Planning something too.

I had a dream. But the dream was real, and it’s happening right now oh fuck the windows shattered and the house became smaller and the lights went out and the floor was flooded and the gas tank exploded and the fireplace ignited on its own and the doors all slammed shut and the air sighed its exhausted breath into my lungs… no not _my_ lungs, no, no... not anymore.

Its lungs. The Not Me’s lungs. _Our lungs._

**Jani’s lungs.**

**__ **

  
... —- ...

**Jani put up quite a fight, didn’t he? Sad, isn’t it, that he’s finally broken? Swallowed up by the one thing he feared the most?**

**He tried his best, considering how naive and scared he was. And we did our best too - nobody’s been broken out of the statues before. He’s fought well. We’ve fought well.**

**In the end, it was always going to be us who won over Jani. Anyone could have seen that from a mile away. He was going to crumble under our hand eventually - either willingly or unwillingly.**

**We’re disappointed to report that he didn’t like us much and therefore unwillingly submitted and broke down. We forced our way in, slamming doors behind us and overwhelming him, shoving him aside. Now he just sits there against the containment he’s trapped in, watching us pull apart his precious plans.**

**And soon he will watch us pull apart Marko and Jaska’s plans, too. You see, when he briefly gained control of himself that day, we let him do that. We let him do that so that we could get information out of Marko and Jaska - and Jani had no idea.**

**Nimble and quick, Jani was. But now… not so much.**

**Just observing as we finish off our duties as Haven. Still alive, yes, but no longer in control.**

**We know you can read this.**

**You, Cameron. Yes, you. Tiia and Tyyne, as well. We know you’re there.**

**There’s nothing you can do to save Jani.**

**And do you really think we would willingly let you save him?**

* * *

**Analysis - Matthew Ayres**

Oh god. Fuck, fuck, fuck. 

That Morse code spells out SOS. It’s from Jani. It’s gotta be.

But Haven says he’s still alive. How can I trust that?

And how the fuck does Haven know we’re coming?

We’ve gotta go. NOW.

Tiia, I know you’re reading this. We might have lost Jani. TIIA, WE MIGHT HAVE LOST JANI. 


	57. Supplement 8 - A Journey From Beginning to End

**Supplement 8 - A Journey From Beginning to End**

**_A Retrospective_ **

* * *

_Tyyne_

Over the last few months I’ve seen Tiia go from helpless, exhausted and completely lost to overwhelmingly determined, and a fiery fighter who would run through hell and back to get her friends back. And while the situation is not a normal one, the sheer importance of this to her is something I can’t just overlook. I feel, maybe not an obligation, but a need to accompany her to Haven - not only for her, but for myself.

As a kid I always wished that the fantasy worlds I read about were real. Now that I’ve got… well, some fucked up version of that, all I want to do is get immersed inside of this place. I’ve read all the documents. It sounds like hell. But it’s all I’ve been searching for since I was a kid, and now that I’ve found it, I’m not going to let go.

Even if it’s a hellhole over there, I want to see it. 

Anyway, I’m needed. If anyone gets hurt, I’m the only one anywhere near qualified to do anything about it. And I’m guessing that emergency calls won’t go out to a town that doesn’t exist, either. So yeah. I have to be there, because this is literally a damn rescue mission to save 6 musicians from hell on earth. And possibly more people too depending on whether we can find out where Emily is. I’ve just gotta hope this goes well.

* * *

_Tiia_

This has been one hell of a journey but I’m so fucking glad this is coming to a close. Even as we drove out of Haven a year ago, we never thought it would descend into this. But now… now this feels like a true ending. I thought that the band’s disappearance was the ending. My ending, even. It sent me spiralling down, questioning my own sanity and my own memories which I had held so dearly in the past years.

The simple concept of losing them scared me shitless, and when they actually did disappear, I could barely even function for days after. Before I was brought into the mental health ward, I had time to explore the horrors that they’d hidden from me - but now I’m almost certain there’s even more that I don’t know about.

~~What if Matthew is hiding things from me? Trying to get me killed? I don’t like the thought.~~

When Matthew emailed me for the first time, it was like my whole world had been flipped upside down. And not in a bad way, no… Matthew’s contact gave me hope. It proved that I wasn’t crazy and that there was a possibility that the guys were still alive… somehow.

~~And while I still have that hope, there’s still a persistent awful feeling that we might get there and they’re all dead. Or in some horrific state. I don’t want to be the last thing they see as they bleed out in my arms. What if I find them and their cold, clammy skin rubs against mine as water pours out of their now flooded lungs?~~

~~I’ve been having nightmares every night since we chose a date to fly out to Atlanta. Which is tomorrow, might I add.~~

~~They’re of various things. Death. Immense pain. Not even getting to Haven in the first place and never finding the guys ever again.~~

~~What if we don’t even find Haven when we go looking for it?~~

I guess we just have to hold on and believe.

I’m just worried I guess. About us, about the guys, about how we’re going to pull this shit off. And now with the… news that Jani’s been overtaken by Haven, I’ve got yet another crucial thing that I have to worry about. Going off our knowledge, Olli, Markus and Jari are still inside the Angel Garden. We still need to break them out. But… that’s not safe, we saw what happened to Emily. How are we supposed to get them out? I know for a fact that Marko and Jaska are going to come with us, whether they remember us or not, but what about Jani?

God, I’m so worried. I hope we can do this.

* * *

_Matthew_

The documents I’ve read say I’ve already been to this place. They also tell me I shouldn’t ever go back and risk being trapped there again, but well…

Cameron left to go and attempt to save Jaska and the rest of the band from Haven’s wrath. 

And now I am going back to finish what he started.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t scared - god, I’m really fucking scared of what I’ll find there - but like I said to Tiia once… I want to be a part of something important for the first time in my life. I want to make a massive difference in someone else’s life, something unimaginably close to their heart. And here it is.

But over the last few months I’ve grown really fond of the people I’ve read about, despite how difficult it is to see how they truly are - the hard drive only has the ugly parts of the band’s time before they disappeared - but whenever I’ve seen little shreds of it, I’ve felt like their friend. And even in their darkest moments you can see the best of them too, like tender compassion and fierce loyalty. You just have to look a little harder to see it.

These six guys are people who didn’t deserve what Haven gave to them. The hell they went through only to now be trapped in an endless void, trapped inside your own head or trapped in a place you can’t leave (Jari, Olli and Markus, Jani, and Marko and Jaska respectively) was not worth an outcome like this.

I can’t help but feel like we’re heading in here unprepared, though. We don’t even have a plan to set Jari, Olli and Markus free, do we? Is it even safe? And fuck, is it even safe to try and reach through to Jani? The only two we can trust are Marko and Jaska. We can’t just rescue those two and nobody else.

Plan is to keep Tiia and Tyyne safe, along with the guys once we get them outta there, so we can hightail our asses to Atlanta and fly our way outta America as quickly as possible. Keeping Tiia and Tyyne (and myself, really) safe means I have to make sure we don’t open a camera, don’t drink any coffee or alcohol, and stay outta harm’s way altogether.

Over the last few days I’ve been considering the safety of everyone involved in this. Like, yes, I know, the people like Emily and Cameron and Eddie, they were different to the other residents in appearance and that’s what made them immune to Haven’s effects. So that means I’m most likely safe… but what about Tiia? 

She evaded Haven a first time, but what if she doesn’t evade it a second time? What if we get a happy ending for the guys but soon we realise there won’t be a happy ending for Tiia?

And what about Tyyne? She’s probably in the most danger. I’m glad to have her by our side, though.

Staying safe might be a little hard, but we’re gonna try our hardest to get these guys out. Failing isn’t even an option. Nobody’s put it into words, but this mission of sorts… we’re either going to successfully get them outta there, or we’re going to die trying.

~~And if it comes to it, and somebody has to take their place, I will.~~

~~Tiia can’t argue against that, considering Cameron’s from here. He knows the place better than anyone.~~

~~I’ve got nothing to return home to, anyway.~~

~~Yeah, about that. I really haven’t spoken about what’s happening with me. About two months into this mess I dropped out of trade school and I was put onto some strong meds. The shrink thinks I’m suffering from a panic attack disorder and just, you know, general anxiety (despite never having any previous issues around that).~~

~~But everyone can see my mental state is deteriorating. This whole hard drive situation just completely flipped my world upside down, and then came the discovery about… you know who. Cameron. The fucker just _had to leave Haven_ , didn’t he? I could have just stayed oblivious my whole life. Why did I have to get the hard drive? Someone else could have picked it up, for fuck’s sake. ~~

~~There are six eviction notices on my doorstep. My electricity got cut off about a week ago. Water too. Whenever I walk out of my apartment and see my neighbours, they’re scared of me. None of them want to even look at me. And when I pass, they whisper to one another: ‘he’s the one, that guy right there’.~~

~~Now I know how Markus felt. And Jaska. If he actually did go insane in the first place.~~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey all! so as you might be able to tell this is the last chapter before the ending! there won't be any more updates until the ending is published (hopefully all in one big chapter, if not, split into two halves because of how long it might be) so sit tight and your lil author over here is gonna write up a storm for an ending! 
> 
> i'm also wanting to either publish the ending or the epilogue on the 9th of december to mark three months since i began writing this wild story (because i'm sentimental like that hahaha) so depending on how quickly i can produce an ending i'm happy with, that's gonna happen! and then, yes we'll have a little epilogue to give us a view into the future of our precious characters :)
> 
> see you on the other side!


	58. Return / Fractures - The End

**Return / Fractures**

* * *

_Interstate Highway 24, Tennessee_

“Well that’s a bad omen if I’ve ever seen one,” Matthew spoke, glancing out of the window at the rapidly darkening clouds above the van.

The clouds above ranged from a light pewter to a scratchy charcoal, and even met a point where the shades mixed into a sickly, pale sage hue. Cradled by a wall of gargantuan pine trees and the bare skeletons of red oaks, the asphalt stretched out for what seemed like forever ahead of the group.

“As if,” Tiia began, “that is in any way comparable to what I had a look at before I left.” She glanced into the rear view mirror at Matthew who sat on the floor of the empty van with a confused look splayed on his face.

He prompted Tiia to continue with a raise of an eyebrow.

“So, I completely forgot, but after that photoshoot in December, the last night I saw the guys, I never looked at the photos afterward because of everything that was going on,” Tiia explained, still looking out of the window at the sky. “Last night I found them again and I can’t believe I hadn’t looked earlier - the guys’ eyes in the photo were green!”

Tyyne whistled in surprise while still keeping her eyes on the road ahead. “Wouldn’t you have noticed that when you were with the band that same night?”

With a sigh, Tiia turned back to look ahead at the road again. “You’d think so, but knowing Haven, it likes to stay slightly out of sight… while still being present. We’ve seen this, you and I, inside their houses, remember?” 

“Yeah, with the hidden interiors of the house.”

“Exactly,” Tiia nodded. “I almost wonder what else Haven hides behind our camera footage, but I know that pulling out a camera is too much of a risk this time… particularly for me.”

Matthew shifted in his seat and scratched his neck a little. “That’s something we still don’t know, do we? Why Haven spared you even though you saw its true nature when you were there last.”

“I’m not sure I really want to know why.”

* * *

_Mount Serene Hydroelectric Power Station - Haven, Rutherford County, Tennessee_

The steel flooring underneath Marko and Jaska’s feet rattled just a little. 

Alone inside the massive turbine hall of the hydroelectric power plant located on Mount Serene, with the ever-present hum filling their ears, the two close friends with gaps in their memories mopped up the floor after someone had spilled their drink - or something along those lines - on the floor. 

It had been smudged, as if a whole crowd had shuffled their way through it, and the sticky crimson liquid had lined the soles of their shoes. Those same red footprints travelled right through the whole turbine hall, up the main stairwell, and right up to the exit, originating from a little room close by.

Most of it was dry, but some pooled in areas closer to the storeroom neighbouring the control room of the whole power station, which overlooked the gargantuan turbine hall. Four turbines in total processed the water running from the upper reservoir to the lower reservoir, although one wasn’t operating due to a fault that Marko had pointed out a few days prior.

As janitors of sorts, both Jaska and Marko had been condemned to know nothing about how the plant worked - yet even an oblivious Marko had spotted a report on one of the control room screens reporting cracks in the third turbine’s blades. It was immediately put out of service, but there was a look of disdain on the head operator’s face - it was as if he _wanted_ it to go unnoticed.

Business was going as per usual on this fine Thursday, despite the ordeal involving the third turbine in days prior. Jaska and Marko, carrying their mops and other cleaning equipment, had traced the garnet red smudges and blurs along the flooring into the turbine hall and up the rusty, bony stairway to the storeroom where the splashes began.

The origin of the footsteps seemed to be on the other side of the door that the pair stood curiously in front of. Jaska confidently placed his hand on the handle and pushed it open, light shining into the pitch black box of filing cabinets and stacks of paper printed decades ago. It was also Jaska who took the first step inside, Marko following, to find a frail figure laying in the corner of the room.

Their face was hidden by the ebony black of the shadows, but what was dappled with brightness were their hands, bound with duct tape and dirty with mahogany stains, and their legs, one horrifically swollen beyond recognition and another still tied to the other at the ankles. The simple sight of it all made both Marko and Jaska drop their cleaning equipment and rush to this figure in a panic.

However, their urgent impulse to help was interrupted by the fearful shuffles which the person was making, moving away from the pair’s footsteps with whimpers and sobs. Reassuring words from the pair and a realisation from the… captive, if you will… that the two voices speaking to them weren’t whoever had done this to them allowed Marko to pull away the fabric hood which covered their face.

A broken, pained face with wide, bloodshot green eyes and swollen, bruised lips that had been viciously sewn together stared back. Her beautifully blonde hair had been cut harshly at the shoulders, and what remained was nothing but a mess of strands covered in the same red that seemed to lightly cover her hands, along with the floor outside of that exact room.

That was no spilled drink.

It took the two men a few seconds to figure out exactly who this was, but soon enough everything lined up - this damaged, horrifically tortured woman in front of them was the same young woman who had saved them months ago.

“Looking for something, you two?” A smug, familiar voice spoke, blocking the doorway and obstructing the comforting light that made everything seem okay for a few seconds to Emily.

Marko furrowed his brows and stood up to level himself to the figure in front of him. “Jani, what the hell are you doing in here? You-”

Jani strolled forward without a care in the world, grabbing Marko by the shoulders and shoving him to the wall with such a force that the concrete groaned more than Marko did at impact. Jaska, who had been standing by Emily to protect her, lunged forward and grasped Jani’s shoulder with a grunt and tried to free Marko.

Jani… no, not Jani… this wasn’t Jani. Not anymore. Jani was no more than a puppet now, Haven pulling his strings and breaking whatever was left of him down to miniscule grains of sand. He was stronger now, and while his bony figure was a reminder of how he had been living for the last few weeks, that didn’t seem to matter.

Another shove proved that fact, launching Jaska’s back into the opposing wall. Winded and wheezing, Marko was now free, but Jani had already reached for the door. Yet he didn’t lock it shut, nor did he close it, for a few seconds later, a monstrous roar echoed through the massive turbine hall.

It didn’t take a genius to figure out what had happened.

The third turbine, which had been put out of service, had been turned on. Its casing had ruptured, now allowing millions of litres of water to come flooding into the hall faster than you could keep track of it.

Water began flooding in at an already rapid pace, and by the time Jani turned to smirk at the two now spluttering friends and their terrified past saviour, it was already up to his knees. Jaska, lifting himself to his feet with care, reached for Marko and helped him stand using the side of a pewter filing cabinet. 

Emily, whose expression had turned from relieved to terrified yet again, was slowly but surely being swallowed up by the murky water which continued to rise up to her chest. 

Panicked, Jaska tried to lift her up, only to find she was attached to something, prevented from leaving. With a blind search for her anchor point, it was discovered, to the trio’s dismay, that she had been handcuffed to the wall by her left ankle.

It would only be so long before she disappeared underneath the turbid reservoir water, unable to surface.

“Oh fuck, oh god, Marko, I need you to find a key!” Jaska desperately asked, the water already rising to just below his waist.

Marko searched around, steps restricted by the sheer amount of water around him, unfortunately finding nothing but a paperclip. Unbending it, he handed it to Jaska briskly. For a few seconds Jaska couldn’t even find the anchor point again, his mind stuck in a perpetual status of hysteria. It caused him to become shaky, but soon he found the handcuffs along with the keyhole.

The water was up to Emily’s chin, if she tilted her head back. Time was running out.

Jaska’s world became hot. Boiling tears flooded from his eyes as he desperately tried to unlock the one thing separating Emily from escape. His blood seemed to scorch his veins the longer he held his hands under the water. If they couldn’t save her, he deemed that it would be his fault. 

Marko also had his hands dipped in the water, but he was instead holding onto Emily’s hands, looking at her directly in the eyes, muttering to her with his smooth, deep voice. He kept reinforcing one thing: they weren’t going to leave without her - not after everything she’d done for them.

“Come on, come on!” Jaska hissed angrily, shoving the paperclip into the keyhole, feeling brief clicks of hope before realising the clicks meant nothing.

Only the rising waterline, swallowing everything up with it, would mean something in that moment.

It edged over Emily’s chin. Spilled over her face, covering her cheeks. 

Marko touched Jaska’s shoulder softly, knowing that no matter what they tried, he was sure that Emily wasn’t going to make it out of that storeroom… and they wouldn’t either, if they didn’t leave. It pained him to think about it, knowing that they owed their lives to Emily, whether they could remember it or not, and without her, the miracle of the continuation of their lives wouldn’t have happened.

But it was time to let go.

The floor-to-ceiling glass windows overlooking Haven along the north wall of the turbine room shattered with a screech, creating a gaping abyss which, in turn, swallowed the swallower. Water, as quickly as it filled the room, was pouring out of this looming gap, pulling down everything it held onto.

Soon the water’s current started grabbing at Marko and Jaska, the waterline now just above their waists. Its long, strong tendrils wrapped around an ankle, snatched away an arm, seized a leg, and dragged the pair out of the storeroom - away from the two eyes which gazed back emptily as the waterline consumed the last strands of her distressed but still angelic blonde hair.

**_A lifetime finished between the space of two centimetres, thrust into the murkiness of somewhere between life and death._ **

**_Though it is up to you to decide whether this purgatory is_ **

**_eternal pain_ **

**_or_ **

**_eternal peace._ **

**_Would her soul hold onto the final moments of her life, fearfully watching the waterline rise above her mouth, or would it hold onto the joy of having someone by her side until her last breath was taken in?_ **

**_Either way,_ **

**_a life_ **

**_has ended_ **

**_on time._ **

**_Dead, but dreaming._ **

**_For eternity._ **

Within seconds a first impact was felt as Jaska’s shoulder plunged into something solid, the shock spreading through his bones like wildfire. As Marko tumbled through the raging, swift floodwaters, debris grazing him at every tumble, the world around him was ebony, a seemingly endless darkness of muted moans and screams.

Neither trying to swim up nor down would lead to the discovery of a surface to this abyss. Light didn’t reach the depths in which the two friends were thrust through, so deep into this emptiness that emotions refused to surface, and neither did thoughts appear any further than their subconscious boundaries.

Any impact that was made wasn’t felt until much later. Skin was pierced, bruises were formed and bones were knocked, but the pain withheld itself as the pair floated somewhere similar to purgatory, somewhere between life and death, lost in time. If their minds were much more awake, the pain would be overwhelmingly unbearable, a fierce burn of heat, an unimaginable force.

Floating, weaving, twisting in the rift between consciousness and unconsciousness, no hope of surfacing, the very identities of Marko and Jaska started to fade away as their ability to hold their breaths for any longer became weaker. What they were both unaware of was that further below was another figure in the icy reservoir water who had also been swept away from the turbine room.

Jani was deeper into this gaping, open emptiness than anyone else. Something had pushed him far below, much closer to the point of no return - something eldritch, something unknown, something untouchable. You see, as he fell further down, Haven slowly began leaving the shell of his thin body behind. 

He drifted beyond what could be considered beyond.

If only there was a surface to be found in this endless ocean. 

Soon it came, easing its way closer like a scared cat meeting someone new. Sometimes it regressed backwards in fear, but sometimes the surface became confident and edged closer before shuffling back again. After a few moments, the surface started to rush forward at an alarming speed, awakening the pair just as their bodies slammed into the side of a fence on Huntingmore Road.

As their vision corrected itself and their balance reset, water continued to rush up against them, travelling down the road towards the eastern end of the road. Seconds later another body washed up next to them, unconscious but still breathing lightly. Marko rubbed his eyes drowsily and once he could see properly, he recognised the absolutely drenched, pale figure to be Jani.

Glancing over to Jaska, who had just proceeded to throw up his lunch into the floodwaters, Marko nudged him and gestured to Jani. “Are we…”

Everything was numb.

“You mean,” Jaska coughed, spitting out some more water, “you want to take him with us? That’s… no. Not a good idea.”

Marko grabbed onto the telephone pole beside him and used it to pull himself up onto shaky legs. The moment he did so, however, immense pain shot up his leg from his left foot. When he looked down, seeing the true extent of the damages that had been a consequence of what had just happened, the sight almost made him giddy, and even forced a small laugh out of him.

Something about the sheer amount of blood coming from a massive gash on his foot, trailing up to his leg, made his mind twist and mix itself up, going murky just like the water encasing the rest of the street.

Jaska grunted, hissing at the sores and speedily forming bruises covering every limb. He stood behind Marko, reaching to place a shaky hand onto Marko’s shoulder carefully.

“Hey, look, we’ve gotta do something about that. Let’s take Jani somewhere, and we’ll see what we can, um… we’ll see what we can do,” he spoke, urgency forming in his tone yet his words still feeling numb.

He stepped forward in front of Marko and reached down to carefully lift Jani from the asphalt, making sure to hold him in a way that provided as much support as possible. Wrapping his arms around Jani’s back, Jaska could feel Jani’s ribs poking through his drenched shirt.

Making sure Marko was following, Jaska stepped onto a dry portion of the street, watching a van drive into Haven that same moment. _  
_

* * *

_Huntingmore Road - Haven, Rutherford County, Tennessee_

**_Finally. He’s home - where he belongs._ **

**_There’s no doubt that Matthew’s rather intelligent, but we are absolutely astounded at how naive he is._ **

**_Did he really think that the hard drive just came to him by chance?_ **

**_Of course it didn’t._ **

**_We can’t just let someone who’s defied us run around the open world, even if their old identity is lost, can we?_ **

**_They become a liability to our survival._ **

**_To Haven’s survival._ **

The scene that the group arrived to was more than the word chaos could describe. 

Half the whole damn town was underwater.

The sky had fully darkened to an angry slate, wind twirling through the sky at an overwhelming speed. Between each cloud branched flashes of lighting, forming forks of sheer, fierce power. Around the group, the air had cooled to an almost unbearable temperature.

“How the…” Matthew started, breathing out slowly as his eyes drifted from sight to sight.

While the western end of the main road, where the trio was currently standing, was mostly dry, the eastern end was almost completely submerged. Half of the main road was underwater too, some of the buildings in rubble and ruin from the force that the floodwaters must have hit them with.

The trees which separated the eastern end of Huntingmore Road from the statue field, the Angel Garden, had fallen. This gave the group a small view into the area just as another rush of water came tumbling down, engulfing the statues in a murky abyss with debris from all over the town swarming on the surface.

What they couldn’t see was that the impact had shattered many of the casings in which the prisoners in the Angel Garden were kept in, in turn snapping their links with Haven in a much more violent manner than how Cameron did the same thing. Many were swept away, while some were still trapped inside their shells.

**_That’s not how this was supposed to play out._ **

**_We should have been able to stop that from happening._ **

**_Why couldn’t we?_ **

**_Ah, of course._ **

**_The catalyst._ **

**_Of course it’s because of her._ **

**_What could we have done to prevent her influence?_ **

**_Nothing._ **

**_We used her for our goal, and now we’ve achieved it._ **

**_Unfortunately that led to a few side effects, as you can see._ **

**_The Angel Garden wasn’t supposed to be damaged in this final effort to dispose of the two people who have a chance of getting out of here alive._ **

**_Even though our first attempt failed,_ **

**_there’s no reason why we can’t get rid of them now._ **

**_And there’s no reason why we can’t get rid of her, either._ **

Tiia suddenly sprinted ahead, down the road to where the water started to encase itself around her ankles. Her heart was thundering in her chest and her head throbbed as she desperately searched for some evidence that the three remaining band members - Markus, Olli and Jari - hadn’t been swept away by the rapids.

She plunged her hands into the water, eyes foggy and a sob clambering up her throat. Every second that passed where she didn’t find Markus, Olli or Jari made her mental state crescendo to an immense state of panic. 

“Come on, fuck, where are you guys?” Tiia blubbered, wading through the gates.

Another rush of water arrived, almost sweeping her off her feet. As she grabbed onto a section of the fence to stop herself, she noticed someone holding onto a tree’s trunk, only metres away. It was difficult to see their face through all of the tears that were spilling from Tiia’s eyes, but they looked ever so slightly familiar, so she attempted to move closer.

The closer Tiia got, the more she could see. Soon she realised there was not one but two people, both holding onto this tree, trying to climb up the tree and across the branch. When one - the smallest of the group - lifted himself into the tree, Tiia was able to see his face.

She struggled to even produce a sound through the flood of emotions that accompanied the floodwater swarming around her waist. Simply seeing him moving and living and breathing was overwhelming enough, but to see him less sickly and more lively was even more intense.

“Olli!”

At that same moment, he stumbled on the edge of a branch. A foot slipped, but he was able to grab onto the ledge of the roof next to the tree and pull himself up. Olli stared confusedly at Tiia who was wading towards the same tree, while one other person jumped across to find some sort of structurally sound place to escape the floodwaters with.

Dragging herself out of the waters, Tiia managed to grip onto the tree’s branches. Through the leaves, it was hard to tell who else had climbed onto the roof, but Tiia hoped dearly that it was who she was searching for. 

Sticking a hand out, Olli held onto Tiia’s hand tightly and helped her onto the roof. Once she caught her bearings, she glanced up to see Markus also staring at her, looking a little concerned. Olli kept opening his mouth to say something, but kept closing it again, retracting what he was going to say.

Finally, he spoke. “I… where… I’ve seen you before. Who are you?”

Oh.

Matthew had warned Tiia about this, but despite the warning it still sent a tremor through her body. 

“Olli, it’s me, Tiia… I’m here to get you and Markus home,” Tiia stammered, her head still floating somewhere between a state of shock and rational thought.

“I… I don’t know you.” Markus noted, adding more salt to the wounds that covered Tiia’s heart. “But I feel like I should.”

The group stood there in silence for a while, nobody really knowing what to say. Markus and Olli’s heads were running wild with what seemed like new sensations, new emotions, things that as far as they knew, they had never experienced before. 

Tiia, unlike the two in front of her, was experiencing both nothing and everything at the same time - intense joy, overwhelming fear, and unbroken determination on one hand, and a sense that she was floating somewhere empty, too far away from anything at all to stop herself from drifting further away.

There was just one gaping hole that she couldn’t stop thinking about - and the world around her seemed to respond to that very thought that she held only seconds later.

**_This was never supposed to happen._ **

**_How is she able to do that?_ **

**_She’s changing the outcome,_ **

**_piece_ **

**_by_ **

**_piece._ **

**_The very fabric of Haven itself is in her arms._ **

**_We must tear it back out of her grip._ **

A shout echoed from the rapids, causing the group to turn to face its source. With the wind still whipping around, it shattered the cry for help into an unintelligible noise, but luckily they were still able to find whoever was calling for help. 

Tiia didn’t hesitate to jump back into the rapids when she recognised the voice floating briskly past. The icy water chilled her skin, soaking her clothes yet again. She gripped tightly onto the tree’s rough trunk and reached out to the sopping wet hand that rose above the waterline.

Their fingers met but weren’t able to hold onto each other, so in a panic, Tiia continued to move down the rapids along the fence, trying to keep up. It was becoming harder and harder to wade through the floodwaters, the reservoir still letting thousands of litres of water engulf the majority of the town. The waterline was already up to Tiia’s waist, ready to sweep her away.

Tiia reached out again, her other hand gripping tightly onto the wrought iron fence beside her, and grabbed onto Jari’s wrist as he was pulled into safety. In a rush of emotion she hugged him in the water, leaving him utterly confused as to why, but soon helped him to the tree to climb up to somewhere even safer. Moving against the current proved difficult, yet the pair was soon both standing with Markus and Olli, ready to continue their escape.

With the use of each other’s support, hands reached out to other roofs and ledges and each member of the group slowly travelled across the roofs of the main road’s buildings. Helping them down, Tiia watched Jari climb down last.

“Are you all okay?” She queried, glancing between each of the three men, wary of the rising waterline.

Olli nodded first, then Markus and Jari together. With an undertone of urgency, Tiia led them through a crowd of residents, along with some travellers who had managed to escape the flooding in the Angel Garden, to where the van was parked, she noticed that her emotions had gotten completely in the way of her staying aware of what was going on - both Matthew and Tyyne were gone.

A panicked turn towards the flooded end of the street revealed many more residents wading through the water, confused and scared, trying to find a way to escape the water. It was hard to find the pair at first, but after spotting Tyyne’s perfectly plaited coral pink hair, she was also able to spot Matthew with two others who were facing away from Tiia’s direction.

Could it be?

Tiia sprinted over to the pair, falling to her knees at the sight of the two people that Matthew and Tyyne were talking to. The floodgates of her emotions, the feelings she had held back for the last year, completely opened up, knowing that she had waited so long for this one moment.

“Oh fuck, you’re alive!” She breathed, ignoring the looks she got from Jaska and Marko. 

They were alive, yes, but at what cost? Marko’s lower leg was absolutely covered in blood from the ugly gash on his leg that trailed down to his foot, while Jaska had a tear in his shirt and a crimson mess leaking from underneath. 

Jani, on the other hand… was he unconscious? He didn’t look good at all.

The pair, both of which were utterly confused as to why the woman in front of them, exchanged glances with Tyyne and Matthew. It was some sort of ‘are we supposed to know who this is?’ glance, but after a nod from the pink-haired nurse next to them, their expressions softened up.

Being unable to remember Tiia, but now holding the knowledge that he was somehow very important to her, Marko slowly stepped forward and took her in his arms. For the minutes that Marko embraced Tiia, the fact that he was completely drenched didn’t even matter, and neither did the floodwaters soaking their shoes bother them either.

It was peace. Tranquility. 

If only that joyful moment had lasted as long as Tiia wished it could have lasted, but the skies were getting darker and the wind was picking up, becoming far more intense than before. It was that same moment that she noticed something in this situation was missing - someone.

She turned to Jaska and Marko with an anxious expression. “Where’s Emily?”

Tiia immediately regretted asking that, because the mention of Emily made Jaska shudder violently, while Marko lowered his gaze down at his feet. It gave the trio half of an answer, that was for sure, but the details surrounding that answer were far too foggy to judge how badly things had ended up until Marko finally spoke up.

“We found her in the storeroom… we, um… yeah,” Marko mumbled, terrified of the news he had to break. “How do you… how do you know about her?”

“It’s a long story, but uh…”

Jaska snapped, angrily interrupting Tiia. “She fucking drowned, okay? I don’t know how the hell you know who she is, but all you need to know is that she drowned, and we couldn’t save her!” He took a threatening step closer, Jani still out cold in his arms. “I don’t know who the fuck you are, but you better leave right now. This place is going to kill you before you get another chance.”

Something seemed to click. Not only in Tiia, but Matthew too. While Tiia’s mind had hit a first onslaught of grief rather quickly, the next thing on her mind was whose hand she had died by - the unconscious, frail body in Jaska’s arms. Guilt was the next emotion to saturate her blood. If she had gotten here sooner, maybe she could have saved Emily and protected Jani from what Haven made him do.

Tiia hoped to any god that existed that Jani wouldn’t remember what had apparently just happened. She knew for a fact that if he did know, he wouldn’t ever, ever be able to forgive himself.

Matthew didn’t react, initially. Someone else did, though, and that very someone had laid dormant, suppressed inside of him for a very long time. In that moment, the man who fell to his knees was not only Matthew Ayres, but also Cameron Lancaster. 

Everything came flooding back into his mind, just like the reservoir water that had drowned the love of Cameron’s life.

To an outside viewer, he could be seen clutching his heart, salty tears streaming down his cheeks, quiet sobs falling from between his quivering lips. His whole physical state seemed to radiate pain and sadness, even though the grief he was experiencing… wasn’t even his own.

Internally, though, there was a war being waged between too many things at once. There was a struggle for what seemed to be ownership between the who consciousnesses for who would reside inside the person who knelt on the asphalt, sobbing. 

Tiia sat down next to him, hugging his shoulders despite not really knowing what was happening. To her, his reaction was uncalled for, something she could have never predicted. Her warmth and her kind, comforting whispered words helped the storm inside Matthew’s head calm a little, enough for him to stop shaking. 

After a few moments of peaceful silence, peppered by the sniffles and heavy breathing from Matthew, there was an initial rumble that quietly and subtly revealed itself. As Markus, Olli and Jari approached the rest of the group, there was a deafening crack of what Marko initially interpreted as thunder. 

A few seconds passed, and a massive rush of water from the lower reservoir came cascading from behind the concrete wall that held it back. While it tumbled down towards the town, the sense of shock that it caused left the whole group standing there in sheer disbelief. As it approached, however, the sound that was made from how it tumbled and tripped over each building along the main road reinforced that if the group didn’t start running now, they’d be swallowed up whole.

“Oh, shit! Run!” Tyyne shouted, helping Matthew from the ground in the process of fleeing to the van.

The group made it halfway through the crowd, pushing and shoving past, before turning back briefly. Something behind them was crackling and snapping, like the sound ice would make as it covered leaves in a glossy casing, freezing them solid. 

To their horror, they would soon discover that this comparison to the noise that they were hearing was something not far off - as the water met the asphalt, it was freezing over, trapping anyone and everyone in contact with it at an astounding speed, catching up to the six escapees and their rescuers much faster than they could escape it.

More water was coming in waves, freezing into sharp points as it smothered the whole street and anything beside it, even taking in the half-flooded houses on both sides of the street that stood behind the shops and businesses.

Hundreds of residents and escapees that stood on the road were almost immediately caught in the crossfire and trapped underneath the ice that continued to rush towards the group at an alarming speed, almost catching them as they sprinted towards their escape vehicle. Every step that they took seemed to make the ice advance faster.

Trying to make sense of it all, Marko turned back again briefly to view the scene. Within those two seconds, he was caught up in it himself. He stepped back to continue running, but with his ankle trapped, it made an awful cracking sound as it twisted. Tyyne, who was beside him, glanced back and managed to pull his foot free, losing his shoe in the process. 

Marko attempted to limp his way but reached for Tyyne for support. Ahead, Jaska held Jani in his arms, sprinting behind Markus and Olli who had followed Tiia and Matthew to the van. Jari was running for his life, barely metres away from the ice.

In a panic they all managed to pile into the back, starting the engine.

Over the rush of the water, Matthew could be heard shouting. “Put your foot on the fucking pedal, Tiia!”

You bet she did.

**_No!_ **

**_She cannot get away!_ **

**_Don’t lose sight of her, she’s the only one we need to get rid of!_ **

**_If she goes,_ **

**_this whole_ **

**_situation comes_ **

**_crashing down!_ **

**_Without her, we can dispose of Cameron Lancaster for good without a single problem._ **

**_With her still alive, they’ll just keep driving down Falcon Passage until we catch up._ **

**_There’s only a matter of time before we do exactly that._ **

**_Before that, though, we have one last thing we need to do… while we still have Jani in our reach._ **

With a horrified glance in the mirror at the remnants of Huntingmore Road and the people who used to stand there, Tiia watched as they drove away from the hell they had just walked out of - alive. And while they had made it out of Haven’s epicentre, the residue of its destruction still lingered behind in the form of drowning trees.

In the back, the rest of the group settled themselves and glanced over each others’ injuries.

Everyone except for Tyyne and Matthew was soaking wet from being engulfed by the reservoir water, and a quick survey of the group showed that Marko and Jaska were, naturally, the most injured of the group. Jaska’s shoulder was drenched in wine red, his shirt sopping up most of the blood. You couldn’t exactly see what had happened, but it certainly didn’t look good. A further look at Marko showed his rapidly swelling ankle and his other foot sporting a continuously bleeding incision.

Both of them had dark wine circles around their eyes, matted hair and gave off the feeling of pure exhaustion. Marko, in particular, appeared to be almost passing out because of it - but that was maybe because, well… this whole situation was a lot, to say the least.

Bruises and smaller cuts decorated the bodies of everyone else who had been inundated in the floodwaters like tribal paint, and those who hadn’t been in the waters were mostly untouched apart from small things here and there that weren’t much of a problem.

In Jaska’s arms, Jani laid there with messy hair, bloodied knees and torn clothing. Jaska tried to ignore the fact that he could feel Jani’s bones poking through his skin. Had Haven been starving him? Was there no need for Haven to sustain him while it was in control? 

There were far too many questions, and no answers in sight.

There were two oceans on each side of the group - one being the ocean of trees that expanded as far as the eye could see, and the second being the ocean of floodwaters which was slowly covering many of the smaller silver maple trees’ branches completely. The branches that were still above the water, along with the trees closest to the road, were glimmering slightly.

It was hard to see because of the speed that Tiia was driving at, but the further she kept driving, the brighter they became. Orange flickers of light started to float around the wooden limbs of the forest, glowing in the dim light, forming as foreshadowing for the impossible sight that would take place just seconds later.

Tiia stared wide-eyed at the road sign that she passed, knowing full well she had seen it before. They hadn’t been driving for long, but this was the same sign they had passed only five minutes prior, just as the group initially left Haven. Falcon Passage was repeating itself yet again.

Something was stopping them from leaving.

“That… shouldn’t be happening,” Tyyne muttered, watching the sign pass from the back window. “We should be able to leave.”

Tiia pushed the pedal down even further. “The guys’ links are broken… we should be able to, you’re right!”

Matthew was awfully quiet compared to normal. Normally, at this point he would have spouted at least six words along the lines of ‘shit’, ‘bastard’, or ‘fuck’, but he hadn’t spoken a single word since he had scrambled into the back of the van. That single observation indicated something was very, very wrong.

If it weren’t for his inexplicably deteriorating physical state, you’d never be able to guess anything was afoot at all. But this was Matthew, who had just gone back to the place he was truly born in only to see it torn to shreds, and then told that the most important person in what you could consider his ‘previous life’ had died in the same floodwaters he walked through.

His skin was parchment white, clammy and cold, and while he tried his best to hold his hands still, they twitched and shivered a little. Whenever he blinked, there’d be a brief pause before his eyelids would flicker, as if there was something else trying to take ahold of his movements. Only he would know that was close to what was actually happening.

Inside, Cameron was barely holding it together. While his initial grief had seeped through the cracks of the wall separating him from Matthew, there was now an unprecedented, overwhelming fury that was ready to break that whole wall down entirely. He kept his eyes on Jani as he laid in Jaska’s arms, still out cold.

Tyyne continued to monitor Jani, noting his faint but still evident pulse, along with the shallow, strangely crisp breaths he was taking in. He didn’t appear to have any deep cuts like Marko and Jaska, nor did he seem to have broken anything, but Tyyne identified something stranger than ever on his hands and lower arms - burns.

They weren’t bad, but they were still obvious. His icy skin was warm there, a typical characteristic of burns. Though their intensity wasn’t a problem, the amount of skin the burns seemed to cover was abnormally large. When Tyyne briefly gazed over at Jaska, she noticed he had the same burns too. It was only natural she started glancing over everyone else to make sure, but Marko was the only other person who had them.

“The only way you could have gotten these,” she started, “is if you dipped your hands into some hot water, which I’m assuming you didn’t do. Would you have any idea how you have these?”

Marko flipped his palms over and studied his reddened skin. “No idea. I didn’t… I didn’t even notice I had them in the first place.”

Tyyne shifted in her seat. “Okay, that’s not weird at all - note the sarcasm. But I guess this is Haven we’re talking about… anything can happen.”

That sentence couldn’t be more true, considering that the next moment, Jani would open his eyes and scramble out of Jaska’s arms in a panic.

Tiia, who was watching in absolute terror as those flickering marigold particles started to flare and light each tree on fire at an astoundingly quick speed, was snapped out of her current state of horror by a scream from the back. It was hard for her to see what was going on, but there was something blurry and red that shifted around and caused the van to shake.

She repeatedly glanced at the brake as if she was afraid of it. There were risks, and there were benefits, and neither side was an obvious winner. 

On one hand, if she stopped the van, Haven could catch up… in one way or another. Whichever way that was, it wasn’t going to be pretty, and it wasn’t going to end well. 

On the other hand, continuing ahead would possibly cause the conflict behind her to worsen - but Haven would be kept away as best as possible. They’d be as safe as possible, but at what cost?

Time seemed to stop entirely. It hiccuped, stuttering and reversing as the van gunned its way down Falcon Passage for the seventh time, the road continuing to repeat itself. The world at that moment was a ticking clock, progressing at every click, evolving at the perfect timing of a chime.

It refused to continue until Tiia made her decision.

**_What?_ **

**_She’s still got her hold on fate itself._ **

**_We did what was required and we weren’t given back control!_ **

Time whispered in her ear. Stop stalling, Tiia. Make your choice.

Tiia pressed the pedal down even harder, the speedometer struggling to keep up. If something went wrong, it’d be catastrophic.

Shouts from too many voices to count began hammering the air. 

Cameron couldn’t stand looking at the man who had just awoken in front of him. Jani was guilty, and those burns on his arms were a representation of the blood on his hands. With a violent shove, Cameron both grabbed onto Jani and pressed him to the floor, and broke down that internal wall that separated him from Matthew.

That very same internal wall was what had prevented Cameron from taking full control.

_Sorry, Matthew. I’ve got a bone to pick with the bastard in front of me._

“You fucking monster!” 

Even Tiia, who couldn’t see what was happening, knew there was something different about the voice that had just spoken. 

Her mouth parted slightly, knowing she couldn’t stop driving. “That’s not Matthew.”

It wasn’t Jani, either.

Every breath that Cameron took in through Matthew’s lungs became an announcement of sorts for when the next punch would land right on Jani’s face. Blood started accumulating in many places, splattering on the flooring beside the pair. In those moments, the other six people in the van didn’t exist at all.

Jani managed to swing Matthew down to the flooring, up against the wall. He stepped back briefly, spitting out some blood from his mouth. 

This clash was much more complicated than it seemed. To an onlooker, it would simply appear to be two rivals against each other - one, a killer, and the other, a man with a strong taste for revenge. However, one look closer, and you’d be able to realise that there was something much different happening.

Matthew and Cameron’s consciousnesses were at each other’s throats. One was desperately trying to prevent the other from completely tearing Jani apart - and it was obvious which one was which. There was a war happening, albeit an invisible war, but it was more destructive than any war that had happened on physical lands.

Old, suppressed, forgotten memories were awoken periodically as the seconds ticked past, overwhelming Matthew with everything that he had previously been oblivious to. The return of his - or rather Cameron’s - memories knocked him off his feet, leaving him vulnerable. And that was the very same time that Cameron had shoved forward to take out his revenge.

Jani wasn’t the person who had awoken on the cold, solid flooring of the back of the van. No - it was Haven, trying to live on inside of him like a parasite. 

**_Our original plan may not have worked, but our secondary plan may very well work perfectly._ **

**_With the destruction of the Angel Garden, we’re becoming weaker._ **

**_There’s no longer a vessel for us to continue living - at least, not in Haven._ **

**_There’s a vessel currently inside this van that we have access to, though._ **

**_We’re burrowing deeper… like a parasite._ **

**_Deeper,_ **

**_deeper,_ **

**_deeper._ **

**_Filling every one of Jani’s veins._ **

**_Becoming his blood._ **

**_Becoming_ **

**_him._ **

…---...

Something clicked.

Jani no longer focused on fighting back as Cameron continued to grab at him with an emotional whirlwind. Someone else in the back of the van was his focus, Haven’s focus, and once this person noticed this very fact... it was already too late.

He lunged forward towards Tyyne with eyes dark as ebony and breathing erratic, sinking his filthy, overgrown nails deep into her palms. She wanted to scream, but nothing seemed to be able to come out - even her voice was now scared of Jani, retreating into the deepest depths of her voice box.

Jani started to pull, his nails still set into the lacerations he’d so monstrously created.

The sound that her skin was making as it tore made Marko want to gag as he pressed himself further into the corner, watching in horror. Jaska couldn’t even believe what the hell was happening in front of his eyes, and neither could anyone else. Jari was the only one to get up and start trying to remove Matthew from the situation completely, but ended up with some point-blank punches to the nose, causing his nose to start dripping crimson, sticky blood.

Markus was next to muster the courage to stand up, attempting to stop Jani from pulling further, elbowing Jani in the ribs. The only thing it did was aggravate Jani even more, causing him to free one hand and suddenly shove Markus backwards, leaving a bloody handprint on his shirt and slamming him up against the wall..

Tiia continued to keep her foot on the pedal until Olli finally spoke.

“Stop the goddamn van, Tiia!” He shouted with a tinge of fear tainting his voice. “Oh god, stop the van!”

Pressing the brake down as quickly as possible, Tiia received the knowledge that something really was wrong in the back. Just one glance into the mirror would prove it.

“Holy shit…” she muttered, hastily opening the side door and hopping out of the front cabin.

As she tread over to the back of the van to unlock the door, there was a deafening slam against one of the walls, and then… silence. A quick glance to the end of the road showed how they had been repeating their steps, Haven no more than three hundred metres behind - yet it still hadn’t caught up.

Though, maybe it had… through whatever had just happened. She didn’t know the full extent just yet.

Clearly, though, Haven was still physically trying to catch up in some ways. The ocean of drowning trees still surrounded the road, and the air had become smoky from the burning branches still above the water. It almost made Tiia’s eyes sting if she didn’t blink for too long, and it was as if she could feel the smoke soaking into her lungs.

Terrified of what she might find, she took her time opening the back door. 

Jani’s eyes were shut yet again, his lip bleeding and a bruise rapidly forming on his jawline. His hands were absolutely caked in blood, blood that had made its way around the interior of the van from its source - Tyyne’s horrifically torn palms.

Tyyne herself was trying to control her breathing, using her t-shirt to soak up the blood and apply pressure. Despite her efforts, she still looked pale and sickly, her forehead clammy. Matthew, on the other hand, was sourly staring at Jani, knuckles bloodied, chest rising and falling swiftly. 

Markus was being taken care of by Marko, who was using a torn portion of his shirt to hold against a deep scratch that ran from Markus’ jaw to his cheekbone. Olli was in the furthest wall possible with Jari, terrified of being anywhere near Jani or Matthew, it seemed.

Marko and Jaska were standing by Matthew, almost trying to hold him back. 

After a few moments, what had truly happened had started to line up inside Tiia’s head. The only thing in the entire equation that didn’t make sense was Matthew. He looked… off, that was obvious, but his constant nervous mannerisms and analytical gaze wasn’t present - in fact, those characteristics of him were completely gone, not even a fraction of recognition left.

“Holy fuck… okay, okay, I have a first aid kit in the front. Let me… let me grab it,” Tiia stuttered, shocked by the sight she had just bore witness to.

Grabbing at the passenger side’s glove box, she found the first-aid kit she and Tyyne had put together, just in case it was needed. With a turn she was greeted with the sight of Matthew kneeling over the asphalt, gagging and wheezing. After a few seconds his stomach twisted, and before Tiia could speak a single word, something deep and ebony black dripped out of his mouth.

There wasn’t much, but it was as if there was squid ink inside his mouth. It coated his teeth in a dark film, making them appear grey. What was the cause of this?

Only Matthew knew. 

_Only_ Matthew. There was now only one consciousness residing within him. Where was Cameron? Gone, Matthew would say. Cameron got his revenge, but Jani didn’t deserve what Cameron had in mind for him. Jani wasn’t in control of himself during the final moments of Emily’s life - and that was what made Cameron retreat.

But instead of facing himself, and Matthew included, Cameron all but disappeared. How? Well, it was hard to tell, because nothing like this had ever happened before. Whatever it was, however, could be somewhat turned into an event Matthew deemed the death of his other half.

Always connected, for eternity. Matthew would have to live with what Cameron had been a part of, despite him no longer being present.

Tiia slowly approached Matthew, worriedly placing a hand on his shoulder. He glanced up, stumbled a little, and let out a shaky, unstable breath. Soon he waved Tiia away silently and wordlessly told her to take care of the others.

Bandages were wrapped around leaky flesh under the guidance of Tyyne, despite being injured herself. She insisted to be left until last, but Tiia, being equally as stubborn, refused to let her just sit there with hands completely drenched in oxygenated, cherry red blood pouring from the horrendous tears in her skin and flesh.

Tyyne took one look at Marko’s left foot and knew it was broken. She instructed Tiia to bandage it tightly, and gave Marko a meaningful look that meant somewhere along the lines of ‘don’t you dare walk on that foot’, though his other foot wasn’t in much of a better condition either.

It was then that Tyyne identified frostbite on the fingers of Olli, Markus, and Jari - an unexplainable, intensely curious observation similar to the burns. Both the burns and the frostbite were of an equal severity, being superficial, but the reasons as to why it had appeared was a complete mystery.

With both Tiia and Tyyne’s minds working together tirelessly for a few moments, they tried to find a reason as to why the burns and frostbite had appeared. What had Marko, Jaska and Jani done differently to the other three guys? 

There were three people in the band who were involved in Emily’s death, and three who weren’t, and those who were involved had the burns. Could it be that Haven wanted them to remember that someone else’s blood is on their hands, that Haven wanted them to remember that it was their fault that Emily had died? 

Only Jaska, Marko and Jani knew what had happened in those moments, and because of that, nobody would know that true reason.

Tiia hopped back into the driver’s seat and turned the keys. Nothing happened. Silence, instead of the sound of the van’s engine starting up so that the group could continue their escape. 

“Oh god,” Tiia muttered as she clambered out of the cabin and frantically ambling over to the rest of the group, “this is bad. Really, really bad.”

Jari tipped his head and stood up, wincing a little. “What’s wrong?”

“The engine won’t start.”

The blood drained from everyone’s faces within seconds, leaving pale, parchment-white expressions in horror. 

Jaska started to get to his feet, but Tyyne gave him a pointed, passive-aggressive look, so he sat back down again. It was fair, considering Tiia had patched up a nasty puncture on his chest, near his shoulder, and was in no condition to try and jumpstart an engine, let alone stand up and move his arm around.

Olli and Markus, however, had been through much less peril than Jaska, and wandered over to the front hood of the van to inspect the engine. After several frowns and confused glances at different parts that _should be working_ but _weren’t_ , all they could do was look over to an anxious Tiia and shrug in defeat.

Now the situation felt much more dire than before.

Tyyne retrieved her phone from the passenger seat where she had left it, fumbled it around, and stared nervously at the ‘no service’ indicator on her screen. How were they supposed to call for help?

Everyone glanced around at each other, unsure of what to do. Their fear slipped between Haven’s fingers as they stood in the middle of Falcon Passage, uneasily gazing back at the speck in the distance that marked where Haven was - the thought of returning to a populated area elated some of the group members no matter how afraid they were of whatever Haven was.

The trees hissed a little, their flames intensifying, their embers floating and flurrying around. Those hisses seemed to be a warning of sorts, because a few seconds afterward, something in the distance tumbled from the forest to the ground. 

Tyyne’s attention was brought to the road behind them, and she furrowed her eyebrows as she tried to figure out what was going on. There wasn’t a sound being produced from whatever it was, and it was so far away - maybe it wasn’t a threat?

Whatever was falling began to fall faster.

Olli frowned slightly. “Are those…”

As the speck approached the group at an alarming speed, the embers that flew from underneath whatever was falling gave enough of an indication to the group that the forest was collapsing right behind them. Still, they didn’t move for another few moments, entranced with pure terror. 

Tiia let out a shaky breath at the sight before her, then grabbed onto Matthew’s wrist to get him moving, stuck in the same trance as everyone else. 

The trees started to echo a deafening crunch as they uprooted themselves and tipped over the road, which was what made the remaining members of the group follow in Tiia’s footsteps and sprint away from the rapidly approaching danger.

With Tiia and Matthew in the lead, Jaska carrying Marko so that he wouldn’t need to run on his two damaged feet, Markus handling Jani gently and Tyyne, Olli, and Jari running beside them, the situation almost felt like a movie. They could all feel the rush of wind that hit their necks whenever a tree fell, they could hear the crackling of branches shattering, and they could sense the heat nearing closer.

Soaking wet sneakers and boots slammed onto the asphalt in a panicked but periodical pattern, dashing away, frantically searching for some sort of hope that the forest behind them would stop collapsing in on itself. Flames danced closer, licking their clothes, searing a few hairs, while the water level started to rise and the all-familiar snapping and sputtering of ice forming began to meet the ears of the nine desperate escapees.

This moment was eternal, no end in sight. The road just kept on going, looking the same, with all those burning trees and drowning roots which would soon fall behind the group as they sprinted past, only missing them by a fraction of a second. 

All of them silently begged for a miracle.

Death beckoned.

Tiia begged out loud, and the world responded.

**_You cannot let her do this!_ **

Falcon Passage itself became suspended somewhere between life and death, held at the throat by two different forces. One, a malevolent force of nature, despite it being unnatural in every way, ever-powerful and intensely overwhelming, and the other, a woman with enough hope that she and her best friends - both old and new - would get out of what she was sure was hell itself alive.

Time smiled at Tiia, though indirectly. It waved a hand kindly, and waited for Tiia to say one single thing as she held tightly onto Matthew’s hand, and onto her best friends’ lives.

_Please, take us home._

_Take us somewhere where Haven can’t touch us._

Time thanked her and let her take a few more steps before-

**_What?_ **

**_That’s- how?_ **

**_We can no longer feel her._ **

**_Her immense presence does not weigh onto Haven like it did before._ **

**_Where is she?_ **

**_Find her!_ **

**_…_ **

**_What do you mean, you can’t find her?_ **

**_You should be able to! She’s one of our own fucking creations!_ **

**_Get down there and start looking! Search through every universe, every plane of existence, every timeline! She has to be somewhere!_ **

The cold Helsinki air flushed its way through the lobby doors as a visitor walked in, completely oblivious of what had just taken place. A nurse, however, stared in utter terror at the nine horrifically injured, absolutely mangled people who had somehow just appeared in the middle of the hallway, swearing on her own life that she hadn’t seen them walk in.

Not only was she spooked, but the nine people in front of her looked as if they had seen a ghost. Maybe that was the shock that she was sure they were all descending into a state of, but they appeared to be just as petrified as she was. 

It took her a few moments, but soon she called out to some of the other nurses in the break room to come and help her. Those nurses immediately rushed out and, while their eyes were wide at the sheer range of injuries in front of them, they first started with calling out for even more reinforcements, and nine gurneys to carry this whole frighteningly wounded group into the trauma centre.

The next six hours felt unreal to both the hospital staff, and the group who had just evaded death itself - though the hospital staff still had no idea about that.

Doctors’ assessments were done while a few were rushed into emergency surgery, and the results were nothing less of completely unexplainable.

Some had superficial burns while others had frostbite, and three had nothing at all. The same three who had frostbite also were less injured than the three who had burns, despite the discovery that they had two matching gashes about 30 centimetres in length travelling from their shoulder blades down. Three others had scarring that matched the lacerations, older scarring that could be dated back to a few months ago.

One, a nurse who worked at Niuvanniemi Hospital, had tears in her palms that she refused to explain.

The two least injured patients, one of which was suffering from a myriad of mental conditions which deemed his retelling of whatever had happened to be too unreliable, were able to be kept off pain medications and could leave their beds without a problem.

Rumours spread, as you could imagine, about the nine trauma patients who had apparently appeared out of nowhere with unexplainable injuries nothing logical could cause. Nurses whispered about how all of them tossed and turned when they slept, and how some of them would flinch when you talked to them. 

One didn’t talk and simply stared at the wall, or at his bandaged hands. He spoke of something that he had done, but never detailed what exactly it was. Whatever it could have been, there was no doubt that he was trapped in some sort of muted, numb state.

Security cameras were checked and the footage taken during the moment in time where they had supposedly appeared in the main hallway was corrupted. None of it could be recovered, only fueling more and more rumours.

There was something off about them, that was for sure, and everybody wanted to know how they had ended up in the state they were in. The deep, endless spirals of colours in their eyes revealed secrets of pain and suffering, though no matter how hard they were pushed after they were all in a decent mental state, nobody said anything.

They were in the trauma centre for two weeks, and then moved into the recovery ward for another two.

Heart rate monitors beeped continuously, like a metronome, as they all sat together in their room, mostly recovered. Marko was still on crutches and his foot in a cast, but he was as lively as possible. Jaska sat on his bed, still hooked up to a few machines, though smiling at Tiia.

Matthew hugged onto Jari’s side, careful of the healing slashes along his back. Jani held a bottle of apple juice, and while he didn’t contribute to the conversation, he grinned a little, pushing past the accusatory side of his mind that continued to ridicule him, along with the horrible, blinding flashbacks he’d receive every now and again.

Markus and Olli sat beside each other, with Tyyne on Olli’s left. Days prior, Markus had been suggesting possibilities of what the public would have perceived of them while they were truly gone, and his main theory seemed to be correct. The last several months that had passed had appeared to be a studio session to the rest of the world, instead of the hell they had actually gone through.

Despite that, though, word still got out that the whole band had ended up in hospital, and now an excuse was due. That situation turned into more of a discussion about returning back to music - if it would ever happen. They wanted to, but now there were new hurdles to jump over.

Someone would question the scars eventually.

They discussed Tyyne’s return to work in the coming months, but Tyyne shook her head and chuckled. She’d already made the decision of working a far quieter job, somewhere empty, somewhere normal. It was a fair judgement.

Matthew was about to start thinking about what he was going to do once he was out of hospital, but before he could say anything, the familiar notes of an ever-so-slightly familiar song he had once listened to started playing over the speakers.

Tiia’s ears seemed to perk up at the sound. Was this…?

Yes, yes it was.

The chorus picked up, and to these nine incredible people, the world finally felt okay again.

> _Kiss the feathers of a hummingbird in flight_
> 
> _Breaking up into a million specks of light_
> 
> _Take the shape of an_ **_angel_ ** _in the night_
> 
> _Carry you to peaceful fields_

**_Haven is gone, yes._ **

**_Our physical manifestation was completely crippled by our very own efforts to remove the Catalyst._ **

**_Though we, as we are Haven, live on in countless ways._ **

**_We live on in the scars that the band will now have to bear for the rest of their lives._ **

**_Their scars are a physical reminder of Haven, and they will remember the pain._ **

**_Their mental scars - the flashbacks, the nightmares - will continue to remind them of us for years to come._ **

**_Nobody was left unscarred. They will remember us._ **

**_They will remember Haven._ **

**_And you will too - yes you, the reader._ **

**_We warned you at the very beginning that you shouldn’t read ahead, and you completely ignored us._ **

**_So now you will remember us too._ **

**_Because the final place where Haven lives on is in this manuscript, where Matthew documented his journey._ **

**_Everything in Matthew’s journey was necessary._ **

**_We made Tiia the Catalyst when she first visited - though the side-effects of that choice were something we never realised until it was too late._ **

**_The hard drive was placed in Matthew’s hands by us to lure him back to us and keep Haven safe._ **

**_Tiia’s presence and calls for help only made his return happen faster._ **

**_Now that we have been brought to our knees, laying in our own blood and liquid failure, we wish the nine people we so desperately tried to dispose of… a good future without us._ **

**_So this is farewell now, you see, as it is time for us to let go - for now, at least._ **

**_You should let go as well._ **


	59. Rebirth - Epilogue, Part 1

**Rebirth - Epilogue, Part 1**

* * *

_She floats away until there is nothing left of what she used to be._

_Her hands grasp onto the rapidly diminishing warmth that someone left behind - a someone she can no longer remember - and soon she closes her eyes and welcomes the darkness that engulfs her like a cold blanket, feeling heavy but nonexistent at the same time, soft on her skin but harsh on her lingering emotions._

_Who she was no longer matters. What she did, though monumental, will be lost in time eventually, dying with the nine people who knew of her incredible efforts to defy the same force that took her life in the end._

_However, dying in the way that she did, death was less fear-inducing than the other concepts of dying by Haven’s hand that she created inside of her genius mind._

_Emily Lambright, unlike all the millions of other souls that float alongside her in a place that you find only once in your life, is a different case for Death himself to handle. Unlike the other souls he lets slip between his fingers, Emily gets caught between them, holding on tightly, refusing to let go._

_Eventually, Death realises who she is. Where she came from._

_He knows where the souls from Haven are supposed to go - so how is she here? What has happened for her to end up here? She hasn’t died because of the sickness that most victims of Haven die from, but her soul has still been dampened by its touch._

_This has happened once before, with a young man named Cameron. But he didn’t die because of Haven’s sickness, he bled out while trying to escape Haven. Death didn’t know what to do - nobody had ever died that way before - so he did something he had only done a few times prior._

_Would Haven know if he did it once again?_

_Consider this._

_Emily Lambright, now given a new name, granted a new form but no past memories, a newborn soul as far as the universe is concerned - an intelligent young woman harbouring an infinite sense of loss... something she can never begin to find an explanation for._

* * *

Ashley Perkins was yet again woken up by her cat, Pixie, who was demanding to be fed, meowing through the house, utilising its high ceilings to echo her message to Ashley from the other side of her little apartment in Chicago. 

With a long yawn, feeling around her desk for her glasses and knocking her glass of water onto the carpet in the process, she dragged herself out of the sheets and peered out at the cityscape below. Pixie wandered in, still searching for attention, staring at Ashley intently.

“Oh, hey Pixie,” Ashley laughed, stroking Pixie’s back as she strolled past into the kitchen. “Come on, let’s get you some food, huh?” 

Pixie followed briskly after Ashley, bounding over to the food bowl next to the window at the very same moment when Ashley’s eyes landed on the turquoise suitcase by her front door. 

Realising her flight was that day, she turned hurriedly to the clock on her wall, thankfully discovering she still had a few hours until she would take her flight to Helsinki. Her concert tickets sat on the benchtop, ready to travel over the Atlantic with her so that she could see a band live that she had loved for years.

A blissful night, you would say.

She would agree wholeheartedly.


	60. Epilogue, Part 2 - The Sweet Escape

**Epilogue, Part 2 - The Sweet Escape**

* * *

Six months after the return of the band, back home where they belonged, they had their first show back.

It had been a long time since they had last stood on that stage, and while it had taken them many, many hours of rehearsing to get back up to scratch, spare time was not only used to rehearse - they used it to well and truly recover.

It’d be an understatement to say that they’d been left with a few remnants of Haven’s wrath, both visible and invisible. There was a period in time where none of them could sleep very well, or look at each other without seeing memories they had tried so hard to lock away. The scars on their backs were the largest remnant of all, the one thing they all struggled to bypass.

Jani had been standing in front of his jacket for fifteen straight minutes while his bandmates prepared to go on stage. Normally… before Haven, he wouldn’t have worn it. It was mostly too hot to wear anything of the sort, and it meant he could move around easily - but what about the scars?

How would the crowd perceive him?

One of the biggest questions the whole group, including Tiia, had to wonder about was what happened to their history now that things had changed vastly - though enough research and investigation explained that, for this world at least, the band had always had their scars.

The Jani in the photos that were now all over the internet was proud, but was this Jani standing in front of his jacket, wanting to hide his scars, proud?

Yes, yes he was. He’d lived through hell and walked out alive - now proud of his determination, and his friends who went through it all with him. 

He let go of the jacket, picked up his in-ear monitors, and took a brief swig of his water. Its cold touch calmed his stomach and his nerves in an instant.

Marko placed a soft hand on Jani’s shoulder. “You’re gonna be awesome out there, trust me,” he assured, his kind voice making the air around the pair warm and comforting.

Time hung in the balance. Only a few moments remained before the six musicians would pick up their instruments and return back to their second home - their very own concerts - and relive an experience they hadn’t been a part of for far too long.

Leaning against the rails at the front, Matthew basked in the vivid happiness that surrounded him, emanating from the people beside him and behind him, filling the room. This was the first time he heard the six guys he read so much about on that damned hard drive live, right in front of him - and it would be an understatement to say that he was glad everything was somewhat back to normal.

Further back, not by much but by enough for Matthew to never walk by, stood Ashley. Eyes bright and hands just a tad too shaky for her liking, her emotions stood on the edge of a diving board, ready to plunge into the pool of bliss below. 

Tiia stood on the side of the stage, clutching her camera. Her smile was wide, warming and prideful, but there was also a sense of relief flooding from her too. Like Matthew, all she ever wanted after finding the band in Haven was a possibility that things could return back to normal, and this is as normal as it would ever get.

The intro began, and the lights dimmed.

The calm before the storm.

Soon after, no worries plagued the minds of the musicians as they were immersed back into the surreal mindscape of a concert, both completely aware and not at all - almost nearing an out of body experience, even. Familiarity swelled in their hearts… this was home, and it always would be, no matter what happened.

**Look how happy they are, Cameron. Back home. Recovered and safe. Most importantly - free. And you helped that happen.**

**Eddie, this is the one time I’m not going to get frustrated at you for confusing Matthew and I for the same person… but yeah. You’re right. I helped Matthew make it happen, I guess.**

**Indeed you have.**

**Have you noticed who else is here?**

**Emily, you mean?**

**I’m glad she’s gotten a second chance. And the band too… they deserve this night, this second chance. I’m really glad they have this blissful night to begin rebuilding.**

**Me too, Cam. Me too.**

For no more than a brief moment, Marko caught a glimpse of a familiar face buried in the crowd. It made him stumble a little, though he briskly drew his gaze away in fear of getting distracted by yet another hallucination, yet another time he had been seeing this same woman.

Tiia studied Marko briefly, and followed his gaze to the same person - a young woman with glasses too big for her face, a bright, perfect smile, and blonde hair which was tied back in a messy bun. Someone she knew all too well.

Ashley couldn’t shake a feeling so vivid. She found Marko and Jaska so familiar, so  _ close _ , as if she had met them before. But it didn’t make any sense to her, and it never would. The feeling only lasted a few moments before she was thrust back into the soundscape of joy and peace.

Matthew would miss this mystery woman, never crossing paths that night, and never once more.

**Blissful, isn’t it?**

Jari couldn’t help but grin as he watched his best friends back in their favourite place, after so long. He had missed it - they all had - but he never imagined it would feel this incredible to well and truly be back.

Markus, too, was watching from the back, eyes absorbing the light and heart absorbing the pure emotion that made the air around him quiver in a joyful song. This was everything to him, worth all the struggle.

Olli drowned in the lights, a halo surrounding him. He was sure his pure jubilation could be felt by everyone in the room as it was released through the speakers in the melodies of his guitar.

Marko, deep in the vivid mindscape he always flourished in, had never felt emotions so strongly in his life. While performing, all he could think about was how far they had come, and how far they would go in the coming years.

Jaska had goosebumps all along his arms, the sound of the crowd singing along sending shivers down his spine. God, he had missed this more than anyone, it seemed, and now that he was standing there, his inner scars began to finally heal.

Jani’s exhilaration while on stage had always been strong, but this was a whole other level. Between navigating his innermost thoughts and the things he had experienced in the last few months, his pure happiness never dimmed.

Tiia couldn’t stop smiling as she captured her closest friends in the place they loved most, a heaven in its own way, and her very own heaven too. Her golden heart beat in time with the music she had longed to hear for so, so long.

Ashley was in her own world, flooded with such an intense warmth that held onto her as if an old friend was hugging her. Each note played by the band made her smile wider by the second, and as she pushed her glasses back up her nose, she knew she had found her favourite place to be.

Tyyne sat in her break room alongside her co-workers, still in her hospital scrubs. Though she had promised herself to be at that concert that night, she was called in for an emergency surgery last minute. She made sure that the band knew she was there in spirit.

And Matthew, oh Matthew, felt as if he was truly flying, floating through a sky of pink and orange hues, the sun warming his skin just like the spotlights shining on him. This was where he loved to be, now and always. 

The world, to these nine incredible people, was truly okay again.

There was finally hope again.

This is what it feels like to be truly alive.


	61. Thank You.

It’s been a long time since I started writing this - and ever since I began, I was confident that I’d finish. And here we are, 56,436 words later. 60 whole chapters of this wild, shifting, strange world that I thought of on a whim, inspired by some of my favourite novels of all time.

Writing this little ‘thank you’ chapter feels really cheesy, to be perfectly honest (mostly because there are only like… 4 or 5 people who actively read this novel), but I do want to say that this novel really does mean the world to me - along with the way that you’ve welcomed it with open arms. Admittedly, it’s a lot more violent and graphic than I’m comfortable with writing, and there isn’t much happiness to share around, but soon I’m going to start uploading the rewritten version once I’ve finished Withstanding Haven. 

I’ve made some little thematic things for fun along the way, along with a Spotify playlist that matches the vibe…

[ https://open.spotify.com/playlist/523fF6yJQT2az8qRT7QTPa?si=BcCk3pt2T4uE9vy1ch6XFg ](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/523fF6yJQT2az8qRT7QTPa?si=BcCk3pt2T4uE9vy1ch6XFg)

(this already has the names for the new characters included in the revision, mind you...but it’s still them.)

...and other little graphics, too.

As for the revised version, as you’re possibly quite curious about that - it will be quite different to the Morpho Catalyst you know and love. First off, it won’t have that name by the end, but most of the characters will be different too, along with some of their individual storylines. Extra documents, ones I wished I wrote in the original, will be added too, and Withstanding Haven will be included directly inside. There’ll be a much more diverse cast, a group of people I’m hoping you can still relate to, and characters I hope you can love. And best of all - something you’ve all been waiting for - _there will be many more happy chapters_. 

Writing Morpho Catalyst and seeing your reactions as the plot unfolded brought me through the hardest part of my life so far. If I didn’t have a reason to get up out of bed, a reason I could always give myself was wanting to see your comments and thoughts. 

To the_lie_eternal and FanFicReader01 - my hype team, thank you for putting up with my endless teasing about not only the regular chapters but ESPECIALLY the ending. I started out hyping your fics up - before we even started talking, before I started writing, too - and it seems things have come full circle.

(art from https://www.instagram.com/p/CGexQRQJczC/)

To Illusion_and_Dream, your endless theories have pushed the bounds of what I thought Morpho Catalyst could be, and even inspired some changes to the plot which have become more and more integral over time. I promise to catch up on your fic now that I’ve finished.

And pastlink, don’t think I’ve forgotten about you - every time a comment from you appeared in my inbox, I couldn’t help but smile. Your theories, too, have inspired pretty integral plot changes - and I promise to catch up on your fic too, because it’s been a while.

Finally, to any lurkers, who haven’t commented before and are just sitting and enjoying the ride, along with anyone else who comes along in the future. Thank you for getting to the end of something I’ve put so much love and soul into.

This may not be the end of Morpho Catalyst.

There may be more, I’m just not too sure at this point.

I’ll let you know :)

\- mydarkdisquiet


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